ABSTRACT

In this paper, we discuss the theoretical foundation and implementation of two alternative instructional courses that aimed to support the development of elementary school students’ early algebraic thinking. Both courses approached three basic algebra content strands: generalized arithmetic, functional thinking and modelling languages. The courses differed according to the characteristics of the tasks that were used. The first course involved ‘pure mathematical guided investigations’ emphasizing scaffolding steps in pure mathematics contexts. The second course focused on ‘applied open explorations’ underlining more open questions in applied everyday contexts. The courses were compared in respect to students’ learning outcomes. The findings, yielded from the analysis of pre-test and post-test data, indicated that the second course had better learning outcomes compared to the first.

摘要

在本文中，我们讨论了旨在支持小学生早期代数思维发展的两种替代教学课程的理论基础和实施。这两门课程都涉及三个基本的代数内容：广义算术、函数式思维和建模语言。课程根据所用任务的特点而有所不同。第一门课程涉及“纯数学指导调查”，强调纯数学背景下的脚手架步骤。第二门课程侧重于“应用开放探索”，强调应用日常环境中更开放的问题。课程根据学生的学习成果进行比较。通过对测试前和测试后数据的分析得出的结果，