Work

Factors associated with children’s understanding of mathematical equivalence: An investigation across six countries.

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Many primary school students have difficulties understanding mathematical equivalence with \nconsiderably poorer performance in some countries than in others. However, students’ formal \nunderstanding of equivalence has significant and long-lasting effects as it predicts arithmetic and \nalgebra achievement throughout school years. Currently, little is known about the factors influencing\nstudents’ understanding of mathematical equivalence particularly across different countries. We have\nconducted the first large-scale study to explore the factors associated with primary school students’ \nunderstanding of mathematical equivalence across six countries (China, England, New Zealand, South \nKorea, Turkey, and the US). Participants were 2760 primary school students and their teachers (N = 108).\nUsing multilevel structural equation modelling, we found that students’ knowledge of definitions of the \nequals sign relates to their equation-solving performance. We also found that while teachers’ \nknowledge of students’ relational strategies does relate to students’ understanding of equivalence, \nteachers’ knowledge of students’ operational strategies, and the format of arithmetic practice\npresented in the students’ current year textbooks do not. Using England as the reference country, we \nfound that this pattern was similar across the samples from all the participating countries. Taken \ntogether, our findings have important theoretical and practical implications, providing a more complete \npicture of the individual and classroom-level factors associated with students’ understanding of \nequivalence.

Source: Journal of Educational Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/edu0000747