Supporting Teacher Noticing of Moments of Algebraic Potential

Abstract

A growing body of research in early algebra has illustrated that young children have the capacity to reason algebraically and has recommended introducing algebraic ways of thinking in early-elementary grades. Over the past two decades, there have been great strides in exploring children’s capacity for algebraic thinking and this work has opened the door to designing early algebra curricula and classroom experiences. What is less explored, however, are ways to support teachers in implementing early algebra lessons and supporting students’ thinking about early algebra concepts. In this paper, we explore early algebra teacher education. We introduce an approach to teacher education that leverages a novel algebraic thinking perspective. We demonstrate how using this perspective in video-based professional development can support teachers in identifying and reasoning about students’ nascent algebra thinking, which, we claim, is an important skill in teaching early algebra.