Early Childhood Mathematics Teaching and Learning
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Early Childhood Mathematics Teaching and Learning Andrea Peter-Koop · Petra Scherer
Published online: 18 August 2012 © GDM 2012
It is widely acknowledged that young children start learning mathematics and develop mathematical competencies much prior to school. Consequently, these predominantly informal learning processes have been the focus of research over the last 60 years. Starting with Piaget and his work on early number concept development (Piaget 1957) early numeracy competencies has been traditionally the field of developmental-psychological research. In mathematics education this is in contrast a rather young research domain—particularly in Germany. This is rather surprising, as it was the German educator Friedrich Fröbel who in the 1850s observed young children at play and created a complex and intensely mathematical pedagogy for young children that was based on the use of geometric forms and the manipulation of symmetries (see Balfanz 1999). His approach was characterized by “both an emphasis on child nurturing that did not threaten prevailing views of child rearing and a series of organized activities that were intellectually complex and inherently mathematical” (ibid., p. 5). Furthermore, the term “kindergarten” that is widely used internationally, was also coined by Fröbel. In Germany, the mathematics educators Schmidt and Weiser (1982) were among the pioneers in terms of research on early years mathematics. They conducted individual interviews with 24 kindergarten children in order to investigate their counting abilities and their understanding of number. Based on their findings they derived recommendations for mathematics teaching and learning in grade 1. A. Peter-Koop () Institut für Didaktik der Mathematik, Universität Bielefeld, Postfach 10 01 31, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany e-mail: [email protected] P. Scherer () Fakultät für Mathematik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, 45117 Essen, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
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A. Peter-Koop, P. Scherer
Globally, in the 1980s mathematics educators started large-scale projects as well as qualitative studies to investigate the contents, contexts and concepts of young children’s learning of mathematics and their implications for the training of early childhood educators and early primary teachers (e.g. Steffe et al. 1983; Steffe 1982; Bobis 1996; Young-Loveridge 1999; Clarke et al. 2002; Thomas et al. 2002). Their work has inspired researchers in mathematics education in many countries—resulting in an increasing number of international publications as well as the foundation of working groups on early childhood mathematics at international conferences such as CERME and ICME. However, the vast body of research on mathematics learning prior to school is focusing on early number learning and understanding while Fröbel almost 200 years ago based his concept on space and shape. To date research leading to the development of detailed competency development models that go beyond the development of understanding of numbers and sets and integrat
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