Symbolic equational algebraic thinking in young students

International audience ; This paper explores one of the items Kieran (2022) recently highlighted as needing to be addressed in early algebra research, namely detailed intervention studies of the transitional challenges faced by young students in solving equations when they move from manipulative-based to letter-symbolic-based contexts. The paper draws on longitudinal research to investigate the gradual transformation of the concrete context’s meanings as the students move with the teacher towards an understanding of the meaning and operativity of symbolic equational algebraic thinking. A Vygotskian inspired embodied semiotic analysis reveals three interrelated transitional themes: transliteration in discursive activity, a denotative-connotative shift of meaning, and an awareness of new cultural forms of sign-production of the alphanumeric semiotic system.