A Learning Trajectory in 6-Year-Olds’ Thinking About Generalizing Functional Relationships

The study of functions is a critical route into teaching and learning algebra in the elementary grades, yet important questions remain regarding the nature of young children’s understanding of functions. This article reports an empirically developed learning trajectory in first-grade children’s (6-year-olds’) thinking about generalizing functional relationships. Findings suggest that children can learn to think in quite sophisticated and generalized ways about relationships in function data, thus challenging the typical curricular approach in the lower elementary grades in which children consider only variation in a single sequence of values.