The Importance of Equal Sign Understanding in the Middle Grades

Abstract

The equal sign is perhaps the most prevalent symbol in school mathematics, and developing an understanding of it has typically been considered mathematically straightforward. In fact, after its initial introduction during students' early elementary school education, little, if any, instructional time is explicitly spent on the concept in the later grades. Yet research suggests that many students at all grade levels have not developed adequate understandings of the meaning of the equal sign (Baroody and Ginsburg 1983; Behr, Erlwanger, and Nichols 1980; Falkner, Levi, and Carpenter 1999; Kieran 1981; Knuth et al. 2006). Such findings are troubling with respect to students' preparation for algebra, especially given Carpenter, Franke, and Levi's (2003) contention that a “limited conception of what the equal sign means is one of the major stumbling blocks in learning algebra. Virtually all manipulations on equations require understanding that the equal sign represents a relation” (p. 22).