Arithmetical notating as a diagrammatic activity

Abstract

Qualitative data is presented from the trialling of a software-based arithmetical notating task designed to foster engagement with the structure of equality statements. The design rationale is “diagrammatic activity” (Dorfler, 2006) where arithmetic inscriptions onscreen are observed and manipulated according to operational rules. The data suggest that the children’s readings of arithmetical notation were transformed from computation to pattern awareness and substitution making. This afforded the emergence of commutative and partitional meaning making for a b b a + = + and b a c + = syntaxes respectively.