Third Grade Students’ Use of Relational Thinking

Marta Molina and Encarnación Castro
Additional contact information
Marta Molina: Dpto. Didáctica de las Matemáticas y de las Ciencias Experimentales, Escuela de Educación y Turismo de Ávila, Universidad de Salamanca, Madrigal de las Altas Torres, 3, 05003 Ávila, Spain
Encarnación Castro: Dpto. Didáctica de la Matemática, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Campus de Cartuja s/n, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: Current mathematics curricula have as one of their fundamental objectives the development of number sense. This is understood as a set of skills. Some of them have an algebraic nature such as acquiring an abstract understanding of relations between numbers, developing awareness of properties and of the structure of the decimal number system and using it in a strategic manner. In this framework, the term relational thinking directs attention towards a way of working with arithmetic expressions that promotes relations between their terms and the use of properties. A teaching experiment has allowed to characterize the way in which third grade students use this type of thinking for solving number equalities by distinguishing four profiles of use. These profiles inform about how students employ relations and arithmetic properties to solve the equalities. They also ease the description of the evolution of the use of relational thinking along the sessions in the classroom. Uses of relational thinking of different sophistication are distinguished depending on whether a general known rule is applied, or relations and properties are used in a flexible way. Results contribute to understanding the process of developing the algebraic component of number sense.

Keywords: mathematics education; relational thinking; number sense; numerical equalities; arithmetic properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/2/187/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/2/187/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:187-:d:482447

Access Statistics for this article

Mathematics is currently edited by Ms. Emma He

More articles in Mathematics from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().