Coming to grips with mathematics, Mathematics

Assignment Help:

Coming To Grips With Mathematics :  How does a child acquire mathematical concepts? Can any concept be presented to a child at any stage in such a manner that the child gets some idea about it? If this is so, then we adults need to be very sensitive about the level of development a learner has already reached, and present the concept accordingly. We need to gauge the "readiness" of the child for learning that particular concept.

For example, for a small child to appreciate the relation between addition and subtraction, she should be able to realise that actions are reversible. And, she can do this if she understands how conservation operates. How would you gauge this understanding?

In a typical task to check if a child can conserve number, the child is shown two rows of buttons of the same length, with the same number in each row. While the child looks on, the buttons in one row (Row A below) are spread out by the adult.

The other row (Row B) is left untouched. Then the child is asked if the two rows have the same number of buttons.

The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) observed the following:

Children who can conserve argue that the two rows have the same number of buttons because you have neither taken away from the untouched row nor added to the first row. They also argue that one can bring the buttons in the first row closer so that the positions of the buttons in both the rows are the same. This argument indicates the ability of the child to reverse her thought process.

In this activity the child and the adult (Piaget) were engaged in a conversation in which the adult was willing to listen to the child, tried to understand her and made her think. The adult was treating the child as an independent thinking person.

 


Related Discussions:- Coming to grips with mathematics

Initial conditions to find system of equations, Solve the subsequent IVP. ...

Solve the subsequent IVP. y′′ + 11y′ + 24 y = 0 y (0) =0  y′ (0)=-7  Solution The characteristic equation is as r 2 +11r + 24 = 0 ( r + 8) ( r + 3) = 0

Definition of laplace transforms, You know that it's all the time a little ...

You know that it's all the time a little scary while we devote an entire section just to the definition of something. Laplace transforms or just transforms can appear scary while w

Emi, calculation of emi %

calculation of emi %

Level curves or contour curves - three dimensional space, Level Curves or C...

Level Curves or Contour Curves Another topic that we should look at is that of level curves or also known as contour curves. The level curves of the function z = f (x, y) are t

Probability, I have a question that hurts my head to work out. It is really...

I have a question that hurts my head to work out. It is really confusing for me. It sais " By the start of the 21st century, only 1 in 6 babies in America was born with blue eyes.

Spurious correlations, Spurious Correlations - in several rare situati...

Spurious Correlations - in several rare situations when plotting the data for x and y we may have a group indicating either positive correlation or negative (-ve) correlation

Travel time, you are driving on a freeway to a tour that is 500 kilometers ...

you are driving on a freeway to a tour that is 500 kilometers from your home. after 30 minutes , you pass a freeway exit that you know is 50 kilometer from your home. assuming that

Evaluate the definite integral, Evaluate the given definite integral. ...

Evaluate the given definite integral. Solution                      Let's begin looking at the first way of dealing along with the evaluation step. We'll have to be c

Word problem, tom has 150 feet of fencing to enclose a rectangular garden. ...

tom has 150 feet of fencing to enclose a rectangular garden. if the length is to be 5 feet less than three the width, find the area of the garden

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd