Cognitive Guidelines for the Design and Evaluation of Early Mathematics Software: The Example of MathemAntics
Thousands of educational applications are available for the latest touch screen devices. Unfortunately, quantity does not guarantee quality: most applications are limited in focus and do not promote conceptual knowledge. This chapter explores how cognitiv
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Introduction This chapter shows how cognitive psychology can inform the design and evaluation of software for early mathematics education, and how the resulting software can provide new approaches to evaluation of learning and to basic cognitive research. The need for improved early mathematics education is abundantly clear. Too many children (at least in the U.S.) perform poorly in mathematics from the earliest days of school (Mullis et al. 1997). The problem is especially acute in the case of underprivileged, low-income children, who start behind (Starkey and Klein 2008) and fall further behind as they grow older (Cunha et al. 2006; Duncan et al. 2007). Although there are many contributors to low academic achievement, ranging from poverty to teacher pay, the primary factor is not young children’s inability to learn mathematics. A very large body of research shows that children naturally develop a surprisingly proficient and complex “everyday mathematics” (Sarama and Clements 2009b), which provides a useful foundation on which mathematics education can build (Baroody 2004). The research also shows that quality early mathematics education can have long term positive impacts on achievement and can provide substantial benefits for those who need the most help, namely underprivileged, lowincome children (Cross et al. 2009). We propose that the affordances of computer technology, although hardly a panacea, offer the possibility of transformative improvements in early mathematics education. It is possible and desirable, we argue, to design software to help children learn mathematics, to help teachers teach it, and to eliminate the need for textbooks as we know them. Our optimism (some concerns will follow) is fueled by two developments. One is that education authorities now accept that computer technology has an important place in education from elementary school through postgraduate studies. The H.P. Ginsburg (B) · A. Jamalian · S. Creighan Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] L.D. English, J.T. Mulligan (eds.), Reconceptualizing Early Mathematics Learning, Advances in Mathematics Education, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6440-8_6, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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second, and more important, is that touch screen devices, notably the iPad, have become ubiquitous in a short period of time. Software developers have been releasing very large numbers of mathematics apps for young children from age 3 upwards. In July 2012 there were more than 20,000 education apps designed for the iPad, and more than 1.5 million iPads in U.S. schools (Brian 2012). It is not uncommon to see very young children using touch screen devices with reasonable proficiency. Even toddlers navigate the screen, access their favorite app icons, and play with the software for long periods of time. Although only in their infancy (like some of their users), the new touch screen devices seem ideal for the population on which this paper focuses: young children from roughly ag
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