When justifying a mathematical statement, textbooks often interweave several instances of justification, creating, what we term, "paths of justification." This study aims to characterize the paths of justification of mathematical statements that are offered in eight 7th grade Israeli mathematics textbooks. The study attended to context…

Integer addition and subtraction entail significant conceptual shifts for many students, and teachers often offer rules intended to help mitigate this challenge. When these rules are not connected to sense making, a misremembered rule can function as a barrier to student learning. In this article, the authors highlight the work of an expert…

This cross-sectional study investigated the conceptual understanding of linear relationships for 195 students enrolled in a single school in a large, urban district across five mathematics courses: Grade 7 Math (n = 24), Grade 8 Math (n = 52), Geometry (n = 43), Algebra 1 (n = 31), and Algebra 2 (n = 45). The following questions guided this study:…

There is a dearth of empirical data to support the positive effects of problem solving (PS) combined with digital technology in the classroom, despite claims that these activities improve students' algebraic thinking abilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate how the teaching method known as Polya's problem solving with…

Procedural flexibility is an important skill for algebra. Although prior work has focused on measuring students' procedural flexibility using arithmetic problems, word problems may also capture students' flexibility because of their open-ended nature. To date, no published study has examined the use of word problems as another measure of…

The study advances the instrumental approach to mathematics education (Drijvers et al., 2013; Trouche, 2003), aiming to elucidate the interplay between students' reasoning competency, conceptual knowledge and tool utilisation in dynamic digital geometry and algebra environments. The dynamic properties of these environments pose a nuanced…

A theoretical model describing Grade 7 students' rational number sense was formulated and validated empirically (n = 360), hypothesizing that rational number sense is a general construct consisting of three factors: basic rational number sense, arithmetic sense, and flexibility with rational numbers. Data analysis suggested that rational-number…

The objective of this study was to evaluate and characterize the argumentation patterns used by seventh-grade students in the context of algebraic addition and subtraction problems. A qualitative case study was conducted using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) model (McNeill & Krajcik, 2008) and argument quality framework. To describe the…

This paper provides information on datasets for the research project that examined the efficacy of three educational technologies including "From Here to There!", a research-based game for improving algebraic understanding. The dataset contains 4,092 7th-grade students' data collected through a randomized control trial conducted in…

This article presents a series of open-ended tasks exploring the development of algebraic expressions suitable for exploration with Year 7 students. The tasks use a familiar tool, the hundreds chart, to aid the transition between representational tools and abstract ways of working. The tasks outline a developmental progression of patterns and…

Background: Prior work has shown that middle school students struggle with algebra and that game-based educational technologies, such as DragonBox and From Here to There!, are effective at improving students' algebraic performance. However, it remains unclear which aspects of algebraic knowledge shift as a result of playing these games and what…

We conducted a descriptive exploratory study in which we analyzed 313 sixth to eighth grade students' answers to a word problem, accompanied by diagrams, involving generalization in an algebraic functional context. In this research, we jointly addressed two objectives: (a) to determine the strategies deployed by students to generalize and (b) to…

The evolution of U.S. secondary school mathematics requirements throughout the 20th century included a significant shift towards more rigorous standards by the end of the century. Initially, many states required minimal or no mathematics for high school graduation. However, reforms led most states to adopt a 3-year mathematics requirement, with…

Developing algebraic thinking is a key factor in learning mathematics. Despite its importance, many students still struggle with algebraic concepts. This research investigates students' achievements in algebraic thinking using Demetriou's test across 7th (approximately 12-13 years old), 8th (approximately 13-14 years old), and 9th (approximately…

The aim of this study is to determine the algebraic thinking levels, misconceptions and understanding levels of algebraic expressions of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. In this research, developmental research methods, which is one of the descriptive studies, were used. This study was carried out with secondary school students (6th, 7th and 8th…