The puzzles and problems cover six areas of algebra: presentation, proportional reasoning, balance, variable, function, and inductive reasoning.

Examines the status of algebra in our schools and the changes that the curriculum has undergone over the past several years. Includes successful classroom practises for developing algebraic reasoning abilities and improving overall understanding.

Like algebra at any level, early algebra is a way to explore, analyse, represent and generalise mathematical ideas and relationships. This book shows that children can and do engage in generalising about numbers and operations as their mathematical experiences expand. The authors identify and examine five big ideas and associated essential understandings for developing algebraic thinking in grades 3-5. The big ideas relate to the fundamental properties of number and operations, the use of the equals sign to represent equivalence, variables as efficient tools for representing mathematical ideas, quantitative reasoning as a way to understand mathematical relationships and functional thinking to generalise relationships between covarying quantities. The book examines challenges in teaching, learning and assessment and is interspersed with questions for teachers’ reflection.

This book highlights new developments in the teaching and learning of algebraic thinking with 5- to 12-year-olds. Based on empirical findings gathered in several countries on five continents, it provides a wealth of best practices for teaching early algebra. Building on the work of the ICME-13 (International Congress on Mathematical Education) Topic Study Group 10 on Early Algebra, well-known authors such as Luis Radford, John Mason, Maria Blanton, Deborah Schifter, and Max Stephens, as well as younger scholars from Asia, Europe, South Africa, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, present novel theoretical perspectives and their latest findings. The book is divided into three parts that focus on (i) epistemological/mathematical aspects of algebraic thinking, (ii) learning, and (iii) teaching and teacher development. Some of the main threads running through the book are the various ways in which structures can express themselves in children’s developing algebraic thinking, the roles of generalization and natural language, and the emergence of symbolism. Presenting vital new data from international contexts, the book provides additional support for the position that essential ways of thinking algebraically need to be intentionally fostered in instruction from the earliest grades.

Lessons for K-8 teachers on making algebra an integral part of their mathematics instruction.

In this book the authors reveal how children's developing knowledge of the powerful unifying ideas of mathematics can deepen their understanding of arithmetic

In this volume, the authors address the development of students’ algebraic thinking in the elementary and middle school grades from curricular, cognitive, and instructional perspectives. The volume is also international in nature, thus promoting a global dialogue on the topic of early Algebraization.