TY - JOUR
T1 - Building meaning through problem solving practices
T2 - The case of four-year olds
AU - Shiakalli, Maria Angela
AU - Zacharos, Konstantinos
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - This paper deals with the attempt to study four-year old children's potential to engage in the mathematical problem solving process and their ability to construct mathematical meaning through their engagement with the process. We studied: (a) whether teaching could contribute to the development of the essential cognitive skills for solving a mathematical problem of detecting all possible additive combinations giving a specific sum and (b) whether children's familiarization with graphical representation practices of solutions could give meaning to the mathematical problem solving process, in a way that children would benefit from it in their involvement and effectiveness concerning the process. Findings showed that four-year old children's consistent involvement with the mathematical problem solving process enabled them to develop, apply and demonstrate skills and mathematical conceptual understanding in order to solve the given mathematical problems. The role of the teacher, in organizing the classroom learning environment as well as carrying out the teaching intervention, was essential to the development of the children's skills, abilities and mathematical conceptual understanding.
AB - This paper deals with the attempt to study four-year old children's potential to engage in the mathematical problem solving process and their ability to construct mathematical meaning through their engagement with the process. We studied: (a) whether teaching could contribute to the development of the essential cognitive skills for solving a mathematical problem of detecting all possible additive combinations giving a specific sum and (b) whether children's familiarization with graphical representation practices of solutions could give meaning to the mathematical problem solving process, in a way that children would benefit from it in their involvement and effectiveness concerning the process. Findings showed that four-year old children's consistent involvement with the mathematical problem solving process enabled them to develop, apply and demonstrate skills and mathematical conceptual understanding in order to solve the given mathematical problems. The role of the teacher, in organizing the classroom learning environment as well as carrying out the teaching intervention, was essential to the development of the children's skills, abilities and mathematical conceptual understanding.
KW - Additive problems
KW - Graphical representation
KW - Pre-school
KW - Problem solving
KW - Teaching intervention
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84903473085&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jmathb.2014.05.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jmathb.2014.05.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84903473085
SN - 0732-3123
VL - 35
SP - 58
EP - 73
JO - Journal of Mathematical Behavior
JF - Journal of Mathematical Behavior
ER -