Baroody, Lai & Mix [2006. The development of young childrens number and operation sense and its implications for early childhood education. In B. Spodek, & O. N. Saracho (Eds.), "Handbook of research on the education of young children" (2nd Ed., pp. 187-221). NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.] differentiate between four different learning…

The actions carried out by children are a mechanism that enables them to come into contact with their environment, assimilating it, acting on it, and thereby transforming it. From this perspective, an exploratory study has been designed to analyse the actions carried out by 87 children aged 1-3 years old in two task-situations involving the…

It is widely acknowledged that teaching and learning the language of mathematics is essential for the development of mathematical proficiency. Recent research highlights the need for explicit vocabulary instruction in mathematics. The Promoting Early Number Talk (PENT) project explored the effect of 'Number Talk' -- a resource book to promote…

Curriculum development during early childhood is informed through an understanding of the cognitive skills that develop concurrently in the earliest years. Extending previous work, this study examined the relationship between early mathematics and phonological awareness (PA) skills for 37 children (14 girls; overall mean age?=?47.6 months,…

This paper provides an overview of assessment policy and practice in mathematics for early years classrooms in New Zealand between 1993 and the present day. It describes the introduction of school entry assessment for children starting school at age five. A numeracy initiative, the Numeracy Development Projects (NDP), for students in Years 1-10…

Surprisingly little is known about the extent of children's knowledge about number beyond their ability to recite, read and write numbers and count quantities of objects. There is little information on the extent to which children are aware of how number is used in their everyday environment or of how much they gain from such early exposure. The…

This study examines the mental computation strategies used by pupils at the end of primary school. In 1998 a new strategy for teaching mathematics was introduced into British schools (the National Numeracy Strategy) that specifically focused on mental calculation. The first part of the study took place in 1999, one year after the implementation of…