Solving algebraic equations is not so much easy for every student, but most nursery kids and kindergarteners can solve algebraic questions before becoming a part of maths class.
Recently published study in the journal Developmental Science, reseachers find that most nursery students and kindergarteners, children between four and six, can solve basic algebra and study lead by author and post-doctoral fellow Melissa Kibbe and Lisa Feigenson, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
Post-doctoral fellow Melissa Kibbe said, "these are very young children, some of whom are just learning to count, and few of whom have even gone to school yet, are solving basic algebra with little effort." "They do it by using their "Approximate Number System" their inborn sense of quantity and number."
The "Approximate Number System" is also known as "number sense" and helps humans and animals to size up the quantity of objects.
In the study, children sat one by one with an examiner who told them about the two characters, each of whom had a cup filled with an unknown quantity of items.They saw the pile before it was added to, and after, so they had to decide how many objects Gator's cup and Cheetah's cup kept.
At the end, the examiner mixed up the cups, and asked the children select whose cup it was.Mostly the children knew whose cup it was.Director of Johns Hopkins Laboratory for Child Development, Feigenson said , "What was in the cup was the x and y variable, and children nailed it." "Gator's cup was the x variable and Cheetah's cup had y variable. We found that young children are very good at this. It appears that they are harnessing their gut level number sense to solve this task."
Algebra is difficult for teenagers because "One possibility is that formal algebra relies on memorized rules and symbols that seem to trip many people up," Feigenson said.The ANS helps in solving basic algebra and are needed to master the complex algebra problems that are taught later in the school age years.The study find that an ANS ability does not follow gender boys versus girls, both have equal proportions in solving algebra.Feigenson said, "we see no evidence for gender differences in our work on basic number sense."
Feigenson said, "We find links at all ages between the precision of people's Approximate Number System and their formal math ability." "But this does not necessarily mean that children with poorer precision grow up to be bad at math. For example,children with poorer number sense may need to rely on other strategies, besides their gut sense of number, to solve math problems. But this is an area where much future research is needed."
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