Technology-enabled pedagogy to bridge bar diagrams to letter-symbolic algebra

In the Singapore primary school mathematics curriculum, students are taught using bar diagrams to visualize the problem structure in a given word problem. This approach, often called the "model method", allows students to solve fairly complex word problems without the need to use letter-symbolic algebra. When these students progress to secondary school, they learn the algebraic way of solving word problems. Studies (for example, Ng, Lee, Ang & Khng, 2006) have shown that poor bridging of students' from the use of bar diagrams to the use of letter-symbolic algebraic methods can hinder their learning of algebra. Working in tandem with the Singapore Ministry of Education, a software tool "AlgeBAR" was designed and developed to scaffold the learning of the algebraic process, especially the formulation of equations. In this paper, we elaborate on the intervention pedagogy that is technology-enabled, as well as our research methodology. Copyright © 2007 The authors and IOS Press.