Visualizing as a Mathematical Way of Knowing: Understanding Figural Generalization

Rivera focuses on visualization strategies that the students in the interview employed as they attempted to obtain a generalization for the Tiling Squares problem. He explores figural-based strategies for teaching algebraic generalization and illustrates them using the written work of students across grade levels. He concludes that high school students are likely to gain from knowing figural generalization strategies in their developing mathematical understanding of patterns.