We cannot ignore the signs: the development of equivalence and arithmetic for students from Grades 3 to 4

Students' understanding of the meaning of the equal sign develops slowly over the primary grades. In addition to updating their representations of equations to recognize that the equal sign represents an equivalence relation rather than signaling an operation, students need to move beyond full computation to efficiently solve equivalence problems. In this study, we examined the longitudinal relation between arithmetic and equivalence for students who were capable of accurately solving arithmetic problems in different formats. Chinese students (N = 612; M_age = 9.0 years in Grade 3, 57% boys) completed measures of arithmetic fluency and equivalence fluency in Grade 3 and again in Grade 4. They also completed a non-verbal reasoning task in Grade 3. We tested a cross-lagged structural equation model to examine the reciprocal relations between arithmetic and equivalence fluency. We found reciprocal relations between the development of arithmetic and equivalence fluency from Grades 3 to 4, with a greater influence of arithmetic on the development of equivalence than the reverse. Furthermore, non-verbal reasoning predicted the development of equivalence, but not the development of arithmetic. Based on our findings, we conclude that for Chinese students with prior basic understanding of equivalence, flexible access to arithmetic facts supports their development of equivalence fluency.