THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING AND PROCEDURAL FLUENCY IN DEVELOPMENTAL ALGEBRA IN COLLEGE.

In this study we use latent class and distractor analysis, and qualitative analysis of cognitive interviews, to investigate how student responses to conceptual items may reflect different patterns of algebraic conceptual understanding and procedural fluency. Our analysis reveals three groups of students, which we label “mostly random guessing”, “some procedural fluency with key misconceptions”, and “procedural fluency with emergent conceptual understanding”. Student responses revealed high rates of misconceptions that stem from misuse or misunderstanding of procedures, whose prevalence correlates with higher levels of procedural fluency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]