Student Conceptions of the Equal Sign

Abstract

Research in the area of equivalence and the equal sign dates back decades, demonstrating students often possess misconceptions concerning the meaning of equivalence and the equal sign. Students often understand the equal sign to mean the answer comes next (i.e., an operational definition) instead of the same as (i.e., a relational definition). However, very few, if any, of these studies utilized random samples or large sample sizes, or collected data across all elementary grades to better understand these issues. The purpose of this study was to therefore replicate earlier work to better understand student equivalence knowledge using a large (n = 1,745) random stratified cluster sample of elementary students across grades 1–5. The results corroborated the findings of other researchers, determining that few students hold relational views of the equal sign, many students exhibit various misconceptions when solving equivalence items, and knowledge primarily improves across the elementary grades.