Difficulties in semantically congruent translation of verbally and symbolically represented algebraic statements

This paper describes the difficulties faced by a group of middle school students (13- to 15-year-olds) attempting to translate algebraic statements written in verbal language into symbolic language and vice versa. The data used were drawn from their replies to a written quiz and semi-structured inte...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Castro Martínez, Encarnación, Cañadas, María C., Molina, Marta, Rodríguez-Domingo, Susana
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
Repositorio:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
OAI Identifier:oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/155334
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10366/155334
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Algebraic statements
Verbal representation
Representation
Algebraic symbolism
Translation
1201 Álgebra
1201.14 Teoría de la Representación
Descripción
Sumario:This paper describes the difficulties faced by a group of middle school students (13- to 15-year-olds) attempting to translate algebraic statements written in verbal language into symbolic language and vice versa. The data used were drawn from their replies to a written quiz and semi-structured interviews. In the former, students were confronted with a series of algebraic statements and asked to choose the sole translation, of four proposed for each, that was semantically congruent with the original. The results show that most of the errors detected were due to arithmetic issues, especially around the distinction between product and exponent or sum and product in connection with the notions of perimeter and area. As a rule, the error distribution by type varied depending on the type of task involved.