A Technology-Intensive Functional Approach to the Emergence of Algebraic Thinking

Abstract

The functional approach to the emergence of algebraic thinking described here suggests a study of algebra that centers on developing experiences with functions and families of functions through encounters with real world situations whose quantitative relationships can be described by those models. Computer-Intensive Algebra is a beginning algebra curriculum that introduces the concepts of functions, variables, equations, inequalities, systems, and equivalence in the context of mathematical modeling. Our research has studied the development of mathematical understandings in this setting as well as the pedagogical and environmental contexts in which this learning occurs.