Session Information
24 SES 06 A, Early Years Mathematics Education
Paper Session
Contribution
This study examines young students’ (in grade 1 and 2, age 6-7) understanding of words describing mathematical relations. As former teachers in primary school and later as tutors for student teachers we have recognized that many school children have misconceptions of the equal sign, in particular many regard it as a command to do a calculation. We have wondered whether their misunderstanding of the equal sign is specific or more general misconceptions of mathematical relations.
Main research question is:
- How do the children use and understand relation words in mathematics?
As approach to the main question we made two more specific questions:
- How do school children aged 6-7 describe and understand size and quantity?
- What are the children’s understanding and use of the equal sign?
In 2008 we made a pilot study of 30 pupils and their understanding of more general relation words in mathematics. Words we studied were for example more, bigger and larger, fewer and less and fewest and least. In particular we had focus on the pupils’ understanding of the word equal and the corresponding equal sign.
Norwegian words do not always correspond directly with similar words in other languages, and our study is a Norwegian study based upon communication and use of language of mathematics in Norway..
The study shows that some of the words were totally unknown (fewer and fewest) by all the pupils and some misunderstood by many. The pupils understanding of equality and the use of the equal sign were especially problematic. Therefore we made a new study in august 2009 focusing on that concept. In this study we only focused on the pupils’ understanding of equality and the use of the word equal and the corresponding equal sign.
In our analysis we will examine the pupils’ use of words and their language in mathematics in the very start of their school career. How are the pupils’ knowledge situated, and how do the learning in mathematics influence their understanding of relations in mathematics? Situated knowledge and situated learning will therefore be a central theoretical framework in our study. (Sfard and McClain 2002 and Sfard 2009).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Carpenter, T., Franke, M., Levi, L. (2003). Thinking Mathematically: Integrating Arithmetic and Algebra in Elementary School, Heineman, Portsmouth. Sfard, A. & McClain, K., Eds. (2002) Learning tools: Perspectives on the role of designed artifacts in mathematics learning. Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates. Sfard, A. (2009) Thinking as Communicating: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and Mathematizing New York: Cambridge University Press. Warren, E. (2006). Comparative mathematical language in the elementary school: A longitudinal study. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 62: 169-189. Wigley, A. (1997). Approaching number through language. In I. Thompson (Ed.), Teaching and learning early number (pp. 113-122). Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
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