How Learning to Speak the Language of a Computer-Based Digital Environment Can Plant Seeds of Algebraic Generalisation: The Case of a 12-Year-Old Student and eXpresser

When learning in a digital interactive mathematics learning environment (DIMLE) designed to foster the development of specific mathematics content, students come to express their ideas through different languages and representations. We devise a method based on the Theory of Instrumental Genesis (TIG) to analyse aspects of a middle school student’s learning about algebraic generalisation in a DIMLE called “eXpresser”. Our analytic scheme allows us to capture changes in her instrumented schemes when accomplishing a certain task repeatedly, gradually modifying her interactions with the system. The results concern both insights into a specific mathematics learning journey in a DIMLE, and methodological progress at a more general level. Indeed, the method we devised and explored in this specific case can be applied to infer students’ schemes from their actions as they interact with other DIMLEs. This possibility yields great potential because more and more actions can now be recognized directly by software. This has important implications for computer-supported personalised learning, and AI in general.