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Article History

Received: 18 October 2023

Accepted: 30 July 2024

First Online: 23 August 2024

Declarations

: We declare that this work has not been submitted for publication elsewhere. This work extends the results of a research project on the relationship between arithmetical thinking and algebraic thinking. In a previous paper published in the proceedings of CERME12 conference we discussed differences among the strategies used for solving arithmetical tasks by sixth-grade students with low, medium, and high achievement in algebra. The current paper does not compare strategies of low, medium, and high achievers. It presents further analyses of the same data and a detailed description of students’ strategies which support the significant effect of “structure sense” in arithmetical thinking on algebraic thinking. Thus, the current article contributes to the understanding of what students carry over from their experience with arithmetic which is useful in the learning of algebra.

: We declare that the first author, Demetra Pitta-Pantazi is a member of the editorial board of International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. The other two co-authors have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

: This study was approved by the Centre of Educational Research and Evaluation of the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth. All study participants and their legal guardians provided informed written consent prior to the study.