Abstract
Use of spreadsheets in a beginning algebra course was investigated mainly with regard to their potential to promote generalization of patterns. Less is known about their use in promoting understanding and learning of transformational activities. The overall purpose of this paper is to consider the conceptual aspects of learning a transformational skill (use of the distributive law to produce equivalent algebraic expressions) in a learning sequence composed of both spreadsheets and paper-and-pencil activities. We conducted a sequence of classroom activities in several classes, and analyzed the students’ work on a spreadsheet activity and on an assessment activity by both qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings indicate both encouraging benefits and some potential sources of difficulties caused by the use of spreadsheets at initial stages of learning symbolic transformations.
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Notes
In this case and in the case of two other expressions (see Table 3), we used the original spreadsheet notation, since these two formulas employ quantities from different lines, and dropping the line indexes (as we did in the other cases) cannot adequately describe these solutions.
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Tabach, M., Friedlander, A. Understanding Equivalence of Symbolic Expressions in a Spreadsheet-Based Environment. Int J Comput Math Learning 13, 27–46 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-008-9125-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-008-9125-7