Ideas about Symbolism That Students Bring to Algebra

eginning to learn algebra should be easy. To get started, students need to know that letters of the alphabet are used to stand for numbers and that “answers” often have operation signs in them. If we add 5 to x , we get x + 5; if we take away 5 from x , we get x − 5. So far so good. Algebra may be puzzling, but it is easy; we do not even have to “work ou” the answers. Then comes a stumbling block. The teacher says that 5 x means 5 multiplied by x , whereas students might think that it signifies addition, like 5 1/2, or place value, like 53.