TY - JOUR
T1 - Features of a pan balance that may support students’ developing understanding of mathematical equivalence
AU - Bajwa, Neet Priya
AU - Perry, Michelle
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported in this article was supported by a grant from the Hardie Dissertation Fellowship program in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to the first author. We thank Lyn English and the reviewers whose insight helped shape and clarify this article. The authors also appreciate valuable feedback received from Sarah T. Lubienski, Robb Lindgren, Dan Hoffman and the STEM Development Research Group, with special thanks to Shuai Wang for his statistical expertise, on an earlier version of this work. Finally, we are grateful to the students who participated in this project; without them, none of this would have been possible.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Elementary school students struggle in interpreting the equal sign as a symbol denoting equivalence. Although many have advocated using a pan-balance scale to help students develop this understanding, less is known about what features associated with this model support learning. To attempt to control and examine these features, the investigators developed a digital, pan-balance computer applet. This allowed for experimentally manipulating three relatively grounded instructional conditions (involving the core principle of making two sides the same; a balancing analogy; or both, along with a dynamic demonstration), compared to a relatively idealized control condition. Results indicated that the relatively more grounded conditions promoted a relational understanding of mathematical equivalence among 148 second- and third-grade students and further suggest that providing dynamic, grounded support may not be as optimal as less-enriched supports to promote students’ learning.
AB - Elementary school students struggle in interpreting the equal sign as a symbol denoting equivalence. Although many have advocated using a pan-balance scale to help students develop this understanding, less is known about what features associated with this model support learning. To attempt to control and examine these features, the investigators developed a digital, pan-balance computer applet. This allowed for experimentally manipulating three relatively grounded instructional conditions (involving the core principle of making two sides the same; a balancing analogy; or both, along with a dynamic demonstration), compared to a relatively idealized control condition. Results indicated that the relatively more grounded conditions promoted a relational understanding of mathematical equivalence among 148 second- and third-grade students and further suggest that providing dynamic, grounded support may not be as optimal as less-enriched supports to promote students’ learning.
KW - Mathematical equivalence
KW - balance analogy
KW - digital manipulative
KW - equal sign
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076899148&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85076899148&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10986065.2020.1700587
DO - 10.1080/10986065.2020.1700587
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85076899148
SN - 1098-6065
VL - 23
SP - 1
EP - 27
JO - Mathematical Thinking and Learning
JF - Mathematical Thinking and Learning
IS - 1
ER -