Generalization Process by Second Grade Students

This study is part of a broader study on algebraic reasoning in elementary education. The research objective of the present survey, namely to describe generalization among second grade (7- to 8-year-old) students, was pursued through semi-structured interviews with six children in connection with a contextualized generalization task involving the function y = x + 3. Particular attention was paid to the structures recognized and the type of generalization expressed by these students as they reasoned. In all six, we observed three phases of inductive reasoning: (a) abductive, (b) inductive and (c) generalization. The students correctly recognized the structure at least once during the interview and expressed generalization in three ways.