ERIC Number: ED599775
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Ordinality, Neuroscience and the Early Learning of Number
Coles, Alf
North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Paper presented at the Joint Meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME) (38th) and the North American Chapter of the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME-NA) (36th, Vancouver, Canada, Jul 15-20, 2014)
Throughout the twentieth century there was debate as to the primacy of ordinality or cardinality in the development of the concept of number. Psychological experiments have largely given way to neuro-science in deciding this issue. There are results suggesting students' awareness of symbol-symbol relations is the best predictor of future mathematical attainment, which could be interpreted as meaning ordinality is the key awareness. This report draws on evidence from a recent project in primary schools in the UK that took an ordinal approach to learning number. One suggestion arising from this work is the potential educational power of a pedagogy based on developing an awareness of mathematical structure. [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Elementary School Mathematics, Mathematics Instruction, Numbers, Symbols (Mathematics), Neurosciences
North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. e-mail: pmena.steeringcommittee@gmail.com; Web site: http://www.pmena.org/
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
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Author Affiliations: N/A