Indonesia Conference Directory

Early algebraic thinking was not explicitly mentioned in the elementary school mathematics curriculum in Indonesia. However, whether students are able to develop important algebraic ideas from a general arithmetic perspective through the current curriculum. This study tries to explore the learning experiences of elementary school students and constructs the meaning behind these learning experiences towards the emergence of early algebraic thinking. The researcher analyzes how students construct meaning through in-depth interviews with students in grades IV to VI. The results of this study indicate the fact that certain algebraic ideas must be deliberately reformed in the curriculum since the early grades, because these ideas did not develop naturally in students without proper learning design.