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Collaboration between scientists and teachers in the context of mathematics education of young children
Maria Sorokina
To cite this version:
Maria Sorokina. Collaboration between scientists and teachers in the context of mathematics education of young children. CERME 9 - Ninth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education; ERME, Feb 2015, Prague, Czech Republic. pp.2043-2044. �hal-01288562�
2043 CERME9 (2015) – TWG13
Collaboration between scientists and teachers in the context of mathematics education
of young children
Maria Sorokina
Warsaw University of Technology, Baltic Institute of Mathematics, Warsaw, Poland, mv40ina@gmail.com
Educators are always seeking alternative and effective approaches to education. The approaches, in the con- text of young (from 3 to 8 years old) children education, discussed in this poster are based on joint work between scientists and teachers involved in the process.
Keywords: Young children education, scientists, teachers, STEM.
AIM
Nearly from birth, young children develop everyday mathematics including informal ideas of more and less, taking away, shape, size, location, pattern and po- sition. Mathematics helps children make sense of their world. All children can be successful with mathemat- ics, provided that they have opportunities to explore mathematical ideas in ways that make personal sense to them and opportunities to develop mathematical concepts and understanding. Children need to know that teachers are interested in their thinking, respect their ideas, are sensitive to their feelings and value their contributions.
Young children have an endless supply of energy hence they can study till they have fun. It is very hard not to kill creativity and interest at that age. Apathy as a result of misunderstanding is a most common prob- lem for the young children. No answer after another question “Why? What? etc.” makes it happen. How we can solve that problem will be shown on the poster.
BACKGROUND
Mathematical education for young children is not new (Fuson, 2004; Denton & West, 2002; Vygotsky, 1986).
In the 1850s, Froebel introduced a system of guided in-
struction focused on various “gifts.” It included blocks that have been widely used ever since to help young children learn basic mathematics, especially geome- try (Brosterman, 1997). In the early 1900s, Montessori, working in the slums of Rome, developed a structured series of mathematics activities to promote young children’s mathematics learning. If children are capa- ble of learning mathematics, and if we choose to help them learn it, what kind of mathematics should we teach and how should we teach it? The decisions stem from our educational values and goals, but should be informed by psychological research.
METHOD
The author of the poster proposes to seek for a solu- tion as collaboration between science and education.
For four years, the author has been involved in project Futurum2020. The project provides education for children. We use several method in the case of young children (3–8):
1) Scientists come to the classroom once a week.
Topics, which children have mastered during that week, are discussed. A scientist shows some visualisations and gives some additional topics (graph theory, logic, etc) (For example, one can use Martin Gardner’s ideas, 1970–1980)
2) A Math circle was organised for those children who enjoy math. Exciting topics that are normally outside the school curriculum were discussed.
Some brilliant children get their first research problems. Simple ones, but real, with no known- in-advance solution.
3) STEM camps were organised 4 times a year. Time and space in the camp was filled with the atmo-
Collaboration between scientists and teachers in the context of mathematics education of young children (Maria Sorokina)
2044 sphere of creativity. Solving problems took place
both in classrooms and on the mountain paths thus allowing diving deeply into the amazing world of math.
Different generations of children and adults gath- ered at the same place but had their own educational programme. Scientists organised several lectures for teachers.
RESULTS
Organising camps in such a way helps to make tran- sition between pre-primary and primary school
“smooth” and unstressful. The results are amazing!
During the first months of the programme, teams (a scientist and a teacher) found children with learning disabilities and helped them by co-working on finding different ways to approach math facts.
This way we showed that collaboration between a scientist and a teacher is very important and useful because it looks like a symbiosis in nature: teachers study mathematics, scientists study psychology. QED THE WAY OF PRESENTING
The poster included the purpose, method and results, also examples of collaboration between scientists and teachers were discussed.
REFERENCES
Denton, K., & J. West. (2002). Children’s reading and math- ematics achievement in kindergarten and first grade.
Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Fuson, K. C. (2004). Pre-K to grade 2 goals and standards:
Achieving 21st century mastery for all. In D. H. Clements, J.
Sarama, & A. M. DiBiase (Eds.), Engaging young children in mathematics: Standards for early childhood mathematics education (pp. 105–48). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1934/1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gardner, M. (1970–1980). The “Mathematical Games” column.
Scientific American.
Brosterman, N. (1997). Inventing kindergarden. New York, NY:
Harry N. Abrams.
