Educational processes in early algebra to promote a linguistic approach: behavior and emerging awareness in teachers

In this paper, we trace the changes in perspective that occurred in algebra teaching, sketching recent trends and discussing the increasingly complex role played by the teacher. We introduce our project (ArAl) both as a corpus of studies for a linguistic and socio-constructivist approach to early algebra and as an integrated system of teacher education. We present the methodology adopted in the project and introduce the multi-commented transcripts (MT) of class discussions, seen as a useful tool to promote teachers’ ability to orchestrate early algebra discussions and to critically observe their own actions in the classroom. We provide an MT excerpt and analyze the related comments, highlighting behavior and awareness emerging in the teacher. We conclude with some remarks about the value of our methodology and the conditions that determine its efficacy.