Exploring children's thinking with and about numbers from a resources-based approach

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to achieve a deeper understanding of the repertoire of cognitive resources children can display in the process of learning numbers. Forty-two children attending Age 4 Kindergarten Class or Year-One in Argentina were individually interviewed, based on a semi-structured script requiring them to represent definite and indefinite quantities orally and notationally. Children's responses throughout the interview were categorized according to Scope of conventional knowledge, Non-conventional responses, Playfulness and Progress. Results of a series of Classification Analyses showed three main classes, which capture the tension between using what is known and exploring novelties in order to represent numerical meanings.

KEYWORDS:

• Number
• children
• cognitive resources
• zone of proximal development
• playfulness

Acknowledgements

We thank Alfredo Bautista, Cecilia Bordoli and Montserrat de la Cruz for collaboration in the initial phases of this study; Lucía Bugallo, Silvina Marquez and Ana Clara Ventura for their helpful suggestions.

Notes on contributors

Nora Scheuer is Principal Researcher of CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technological Research) at Bariloche Regional University Centre, Comahue National University, Argentina. Her research interests focus on children's learning and cognitive development, mainly in relation to graphic semiotic systems and practices, such as number, drawing and writing.

Flavia Irene Santamaria is teacher at Bariloche Regional University Centre, Comahue National University and at Teacher Education and Training Institute from Bariloche, Argentina. Her research interests focus on children's learning and cognitive development in the area of number.

Mónica Haydée Echenique has been Professor at the Faculty of Educational Sciences and at the Faculty of Humanities at Comahue National University, Argentina. She is now Researcher in that university. Her research interests focus on children's learning and cognitive development, mainly in relation to graphic semiotic systems and practices, such as drawing, writing and graphic humour.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universidad Nacional del Comahue [C-107]; Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica [PICT 2014-1016]; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España [EDU2010-21995-C02-02].