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Seeing is believing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2016
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Much of the investigational work that pupils do in schools reduces to a routine of generating data, spotting number patterns and describing those patterns [1]. I will refer to this routine as the inductive approach. Many GCSE candidates only use algebraic notation as an alternative translation of what they have already articulated in words. Yet surely the power of algebra is in its potential for providing proof and suggesting further enquiry, based on the similarity of structure between the algebraic model and the original situation.
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