Learning algebra is an important milestone in a student's mathematical development. It opens the door to organized abstract thinking and supplies a tool for logical reasoning. It gives a student the satisfaction of finding simplicity in what appears to be complex and finding generality in a collection of particulars. For example, phenomena as diverse as the growth of algae in a pond and the accumulation of bank debt manifest the same mathematical behavior; in each situation, a small rate of change accumulates over time to produce substantial changes in the totals. Even a tiny change in percentage growth can produce unexpected and extreme effects. This behavior is captured algebraically in the exponential function, but it is hard to describe clearly in words, as our foregoing attempt shows. For this reason, the language of algebra is the standard medium for precise communication about numbers and functions and is essential for higher mathematics. It is important that students learn to master this new language.
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Stacey et al. (1997) studied this question.