Your Name and Title: Dina Ben Yaish Tahal
School or Organization Name: Kaye Academic College
Co-Presenter Name(s): No
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Israel
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): early childhood educators; teacher educators; preservice-teachers
Short Session Description (one line): Encouraging the Use of Formal and Informal Computational Strategies as a Means of Helping Kindergarten Children Develop Number Sense.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
Encouraging the Use of Formal and Informal Computational Strategies as a Means of Helping Kindergarten Children Develop Number Sense
New trends in mathematics teaching and learning at early ages emphasize the importance of helping children develop "number sense", which is described as an intuitive ability that permits flexible thinking, evaluation of numbers and the capacity to operate on them using quantitative, logical judgment.
Formal and Informal Computational strategies include counting, skip-counting, comparing numbers, counting on from the larger or the smaller number, and finding the successor or the predecessor number.
This study examines whether kindergarten children who were encouraged to use formal and informal computational strategies developed number sense.
For the purpose of the study, a series of eight rich, unconventional tasks were designed specifically to encourage the children use the strategies mentioned above.
Sixty eight children from several kindergartens in an economically deprived neighborhood in a middle size town in Southern Israel participated in the study, half being the experimental group and half the control group. The kindergarten children chosen to participate in the study possessed basic knowledge of counting (counting words and counting up to five.)
The data were collected through a series of observations following the intervention and pre and post interviews. The analysis of the data included T- tests on independent groups and on related groups followed by General Linear Model.
The results show that encouraging children's use of computational strategies contributes to the development of number sense. Moreover, children who used computational strategies strengthened their ability to count within an increased range of numbers, were able to operate on a mental number line, and finally, used computational strategies on their own, without external encouragement.
This presentation describes the different tasks focusing on the characteristics that might have contributed to children's development of number sense.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
The deadline for submitting your revisions to this proposal is November 7, 2011 at 5 PM CST or 23:00 UTC. We will not accept revisions after this time. Thanks for your ideas and we hope you'll consider applying next year.
Thanks for your submission to present at the 2011 Global Education Conference. Your proposal looks promising, but could benefit from some additional language that ties your work to the conference theme of global collaboration. The conference seeks to present ideas, examples and initiatives related to connecting educators and classrooms around the world with an emphasis on promoting global awareness and instilling global competency in students. This is not a general education conference nor a technology conference. Please review your submission and adjust accordingly, so that participants clearly understand how your work fits into the mission of the conference.
Replies
The deadline for submitting your revisions to this proposal is November 7, 2011 at 5 PM CST or 23:00 UTC. We will not accept revisions after this time. Thanks for your ideas and we hope you'll consider applying next year.