Meaning making through comparison of multiplication algorithms: an example of task design in the cultural transposition of lesson study

This study was carried out within the broader PerContare project (see www.percontare.it) that has the objective of designing, testing, and disseminating inclusive educational practices in primary school mathematics, allowing all children to successfully construct mathematical meanings and prevent and overcome persistent learning difficulties (Baccaglini-Frank, 2015). One of the lines of research that we are exploring involves exposing children to different algorithms, to then create curiosity towards why they "work", leading to their comparison and learning through difference (Bateson, 1979). This specific study is located within this line of research and it involves the teaching and learning of multiplication of natural numbers with two algorithms in third grade (age 8-9).