'Natural Resources': Two Case Studies in Early Expressions of Generality

In this paper, we analyze individual semi-clinical interviews conducted with one kindergarten and one first-grade student. We build on prior research to offer evidence, via excerpts from these interviews, that children as young as kindergarten have a powerful, intuitive sense of generality and indeed naturally draw upon it to reason through mathematical scenarios. We identify within these children's utterances four features of generalizing for which educators might attend. [For the complete proceedings, see ED583989.]