Browsing by Author "Mikonranta, Annukka"

The objective of this literature review is to clarify what elements mathematical skills comprise at early stage, and how these skills advance and are best supported in early education and in the beginning of school. The study focuses on early mathematical skills of the children aged less than 9 years. One goal besides a comprehensive description of early mathematical development is to find contributing factors resulting differences in children's mathematical performance. Description of mathematical development in this paper is based on Butterworth`s (2005) arithmetical development theory and effective factors in early mathematical skills. Arithmetic development is understood here as learning how to count, compare and calculate (?). Learning mathematics in early childhood is viewed in this paper according traditional developmental psychology and compared with Barroody`s (2009) arithmetical learning strategy model. Second chapter discuss about current state of early mathematical education in Finland, and when it became evident that there is no evaluation instructions for teachers about mathematics in national earlyeducation guide document, it was clear that in this study early mathematics evaluation is one research object.References of second chapter are from national education guide documents for earlyeducation, preschool and primary education, and of previous studies about early mathematical learning. Mathematical skills develop in stages in interaction with environment. Formerly mathematical learning was thought to be a process, where child's role was just to receive new information from teacher. Current view about all learning is that child is active agent and processes information according his maturity and schemas, which are based on his or her former experiences and present stimuli in environment. Moreover, some cognitive factors like inhibition and capacity of working memory, correlate significantly with mathematical skills. Also educational backround of the parents and their beliefs about childs abilities and success influence child's mathematical skills in the beginning of school. This study points out that early mathematical skills correlate with later mathematical success and that effect lasts up to end of the elementary school. The issues indicated in these results need to be addressed in early mathematical teaching, in national guide documents for early education and in kindergardenteachers study program to advance mathematical skills of Finnish children and improve teaching of mathematics at early stage.