Exploring Opportunities to Develop Algebraic Thinking Presented in Elementary Mathematics Textbooks in Korea and the United States

Abstract

Knowledge of algebra is known to be critical for not only school mathematics but also higher-level studies in mathematics. However, many students find learning algebra problematic and experience difficulty, particularly in transitioning from arithmetic to algebra. Therefore, the mathematics education research community has endeavored to develop students’ algebraic thinking in the elementary grades to help them learn algebra successfully. Although research on early algebra has been extensively conducted overseas since the 1990s, in Korea, this research began only in the 2000s and is relatively scarce. Therefore, in this study, we aim to compare the elementary mathematics textbooks of Korea and the U.S. based on the five big ideas of early algebra and draw implications for early algebra education in Korea. The results demonstrate that Korean textbooks contain significantly less content related to early algebra than U.S. textbooks. It was also found that the U.S. textbooks than that of Korea more emphasize the relational meaning of the equal sign. Furthermore, there were differences in the textbooks of the two countries in the way of handling the properties of numbers, analyzing patterns in functional relationships, and presenting the meaning of variable. Based on the results, we discussed ways to develop elementary school students’ algebraic thinking through textbooks in Korea.