What are the Barriers?

A pupil’s literacy, word comprehension is a major factor in determining whether a pupil can accurately interpret an abstract problem. As noted by Ying,et al. (2020) in their research with 10 year olds,

Three more than four times should be translated to 4x + 3 but the students misunderstood the questions and identified the solution as 3 × 4 instead.

Additionally, societal pressures beliefs and conceptions often taint the learner before they even start to study the topic. The number of times I have heard adults

“Algebra didn’t understand it, didn’t see the relevance and it serves no useful function in everyday life”. Breaking the preconceived notion is a mammoth task for the teacher of mathematics. So, the introductory lessons to the topic need to be carefully planned and I have found that not using the word “algebra” at all has massive beneficial effects.

There is a wealth of research on what pupils find difficult when initially introduce to the topic, (see the reference list).