Analyzing the effects of a linguistic approach to the teaching of algebra: students tell “stories of development” revealing new competencies and conceptions

This work is part of a wide-ranging long-term project aimed at fostering students’ acquisition of symbol sense through teaching experiments on proof in elementary number theory (ENT). In this paper, in particular, we highlight the positive effects of our approach analysing the written reflections that the students involved have produced at the end of the project. These reflections testify an increased level of awareness, developed by students, about the role played by algebraic language as a tool for thinking and a positive evolution in their vision of algebra