Algebraic thinking is a major area of school mathematics that is crucial for students to

learn but challenging for teachers to teach (Dougherty & Zbiek, 20! and as a result
there are a "ast amount of misconce#tions that need to be addressed $hen teaching
Algebra% &ith reference to current literature, this academic #a#er aims to focus on
'(ui"alence, a key idea related to Algebra and functions in the middle years% )articular
focus is gi"en to the e(ual sign, $here research has sho$n, and continues to sho$ that
students misunderstand it*s e(ui"alence role at all le"els of their education (+etterlin,
-eller, .ungjohann, /hard & 0aker, 2001!%
As students #rogress into the middle years, the conce#t of e(ui"alence becomes critical as
they come to study Algebra in greater detail% 2elational thinking takes #lace $hen a
student can obser"e and use numeric relationshi#s bet$een the t$o sides of the e(ual sign
rather than ha"ing to mentally com#ute the amounts% 3his relies hea"ily on a correct
understanding of the e(ual sign and is the first notion to$ards generali4ing in Algebra
(5an de &alle, +ar#, & 0ay,&illiams, 206!% 7o$e"er, research dating from 819 to the
#resent indicates that the e(ual sign as a symbol is "ery #oorly understood (:/3;,
2000! and as a result students ha"e issues $ith e(uality% &arren & /oo#er (2006! also
concluded this as $ell students ha"ing little language banks for describing e(ui"alent and
in e(ui"alent solutions%
<n the younger years, students are taught to see the e(ual sign as a #rocedural marking
that tells them to do something, or as a symbol that se#arates a #roblem from its
ans$er, rather than a relational symbol of e(ui"alence% At this le"el it is sufficient for
basic arithmetic, ho$e"er 0ehr, 'rl$anger, and :ichols (81=> 8?0! found that this
leads to students ha"ing a "ery limited "ie$ of the e(ual sign, sim#ly seeing it as a
#rocedural indicator% @or eAam#le, 0ehr, 'rl$anger, and :ichols (81=> 8?0! found that
students belie"ed an e(ual sign could not be in an eA#ression that does not ha"e an
o#erator symbol, and therefore changed e(ualities such as 9 B9 to 9 CB0 B9% 3hese students
also sa$ e(ualities such as 8 D 2 E 0 D as needing to be se#arated into t$o number
sentences that stand com#letely irrele"ant to one another% +ieran (8?8! belie"ed that
these misunderstandings are a result of the amount of times in $hich students see the
e(ual sign at the end of an e(uation, $ith an ans$er a##earing to the right of it% Fimilarly,
this $as concluded by @alkner, Ge"i, & /ar#enter again in 888%
<n another study conducted by /ar#enter & Ge"i as $ell as @arns$orth (2000!,
elementary students in America belie"ed that the number immediately to the right of an
e(ual sign needed to be the ans$er to the calculation on the left hand side% <n fact, all H9
of the siAth,grade students in this study incorrectly filled in the number sentence ? CBH B BCB9
$ith either 2 or 1% Fimilarly, in (200?!, Gi, Ding, /a#raro, and /a#raro found that only
26%?I of 09 siAth,grade students could correctly fill in the first blank in the number
sentence JJ C B B9 CB1 BJJ% 7o$e"er, ?=%1I of these students correctly ans$ered 2 for the
second blank% 3his sho$s a dee# misunderstanding of the e(uality that is found $ithin
these e(uations and in #articular the meaning of the e(ual sign (E!% <n contrast to these
findings, in the research conducted by Gi et al% (200?! 8?%=I and 81%8I of the H9
sam#led /hinese siAth,grade students successfully filled in the first and second blanks in
this number sentence, res#ecti"ely%
<n (200?! +nuth, Alibali, 7attikudur, ;c:eil, and Fte#hens researched 619 middle
school students to find their definition of the e(ual sign symbol% Ftudent res#onses that
eA#ressed the idea that the e(ual sign means to #erform an o#eration or #oints to the
ans$er $ere categori4ed as o#erational% @or eAam#le, one se"enth,grade student ga"e
the o#erational definition, A sign connecting the ans$er to the #roblem (+nuth et al,
200?!% Kn the other hand, $hen students discussed the e(ual sign as a re#resentation of
e(ui"alence, their res#onses $ere categori4ed as relational% +nuth et al% (200?! found
that more than t$o thirds #roduced o#erational definitions, rather than relational% 3he
same study $as conducted on eighth,grade students and this sho$ed an im#ro"ement,
ho$e"er H9I still described the symbol in o#erational terms% +nuth et al (200?! $as able
to conclude from their research that students $ith no formal algebra eA#erience $ho held
a relational "ie$ of the e(ual sign, $ere more successful at sol"ing #roblems $ith linear
and e(ui"alent e(uations, as a##osed to those $ith an o#erational "ie$ of it%
Kne of the major challenges that students face in Algebra is ha"ing a limited
com#rehension of $hat the e(ual sign means (/ar#enter et al, 2006!% 2esearch has found
that students incorrectly "ie$ the e(ual sign in three $ays% @irstly, they describe the sign
as an o#erator symbol, $ith an o#eration on the left side and a result on the right (+ieran,
8?!% Kr they are taught to see the e(ual sign as a #rocedural marking that tells them to
do something, 0ehr, 'rl$anger, and :ichols (81=> 8?0!% 7o$e"er, a more recent
misconce#tion is that students are re"erting back to belie"e that $hate"er is on the right
of the e(uals sign is the ans$er to $hat is on the left of it (/ar#enter et all, 2000!% /orrect
inter#retation of the e(ual sign is essential to the learning of algebra, because algebraic
reasoning is based on fully understanding e(uality and a##ro#riately using the e(ual sign
for eA#ressing generali4ations (/ar#enter, et al%, 2000!%
@rom a mathematical #oint of "ie$, the e(uals sign is not a command to do something%
2ather it is a signifier of a "ery im#ortant relationshi# L that of e(uality% '(uality is all
about sameness% (Darr, 2006! <t is belie"ed that the relationshi# of e(uality that the
e(uals sign defines is $hat allo$s e(uations to be mani#ulated and rearranged, so that
ne$ $ays of eA#ressing e(uality can be constructed and unkno$ns can be found% 3his
signifies the im#ortance of the e(ual sign and e(ui"alence is it is the basis for Algebra%
;any researchers ha"e eA#lored this area and some instructional suggestions for teaching
e(uality are no$ a"ailable to enforce the meaning of the e(ual sign% 3o enforce ho$ the
e(ual sign kee#s the t$o sides of the e(uation balanced and e(ui"alent, +etterlin,-eller
et al% (2001! suggest teaching students to think of it as a balance scale% 3his idea is
hea"ily su##orted by #ast research in $hich models, including the use of actual balance
scales, ha"e been successfully used to demonstrate e(ui"alence% @urthermore, 0orenson
& 0arber (200?!, 7o$den (88H!, and 2asmussen (811! ha"e #ro"ided a #lethora of
ideas on ho$ #hysical and #ictorial models can be used to solidify the idea of e(uality as
a true balance%
+ieran (8?! belie"es that a students understanding of the e(ual sign needs to be
de"elo#ed as early as teaching arithmetic kno$ledge% 7is suggestion for achie"ing this is
by encouraging teachers to read the e(uation 6 D 6 E = as 6 #lus 6 is e(ui"alent to =
em#hasi4ing the e(ual sign as a symbol of relation (0ooth, 8?=!% 3his idea is still
su##orted by current researchers $ho encourage teachers to use the #hrase is the same
as $hen reading the e(ual sign (+nuth, et al%, 200?> 5an de &alle, +ar#, & 0ay,
&illiams, 206!%
/ar#enter, @rank, and Ge"i (2006! belie"e that through carefully constructed true or false
statements, teachers can challenge students* assum#tions about the e(ual sign% 3eachers
begin by using a generic number sentence such as 2D6E9 then gradually, introduce
number sentences in less familiar forms, such as ? B6D 9, 6D 9 B6D 9, and 6 CB9 BH CBH % <n
determining if these number sentences are true or false, students are forced to eAamine
their conce#tions of ho$ the e(ual sign can be used (/ar#enter, et al%, 2006, #% =!%
+nuth et al% (200?! su##orts this and also suggest that teachers model and sol"e o#en
number sentences that ha"e numbers and o#erations on the right side of the e(ual sign,
such as B B2 CB6 , in addition to the traditional 2CB6 B B&hile, +etterlin,-eller et al% (2001!
recommend ha"ing students generate multi#le solutions for o#en number sentences to
hel# them understandthat #roblems can ha"e multi#le ans$ers%
+nuth et al% (200?! also encourage teachers to use misleading e(uality strings that
many students create (e%g% 6 CB9 B? CB2 B0 CB9 B9 ! as a natural o##ortunity to discuss the true
meaning of the e(ual sign $ith their students% &hile /ar#enter et al% (2006! encourages
#hysical balance models in conjuction $ith o#en number sentences%
<n conclusion, this #a#er has illustrated that there are many tools that can be used to
challenge students* conce#tions, correct their misconce#tions and lead them to$ard a
dee#er understanding of e(uality% <t has highlighted that to mani#ulate and sol"e
e(uations one must understand that the e(ual sign re#resents a relation, that the t$o sides
of an e(uation are e(ui"alent eA#ressions, and that e"ery e(uation can be re#laced by an
e(ui"alent e(uation (/ar#enter, et al%, 2006> +ieran, 8?!% 3his #a#er eA#lored the
misconce#tions that arise from ha"ing an inaccurate understanding of the e(ual sign $ith
reference to current research% &ord count 9H6
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