Early childhood education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Early childhood education - Essay Example Rationale Young children can learn mathematics from anywhere. Number is all around them such as their age, their address and their telephone number and children need to find meaning and connections between numbers, as if trying to understand another language In a sense, math’s is another language in another form that children need to decipher. At a very early age, children can already learn the concepts of numerical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but of course, presented in a developmentally-appropriate manner This research proposal aims to find out how teachers in Key stage 1 approach the teaching of mathematics to their children At this age, it is important that children use a lot of concrete materials to learn math concepts since they still think in more concrete ways. That is why the use of manipulative materials is essential to their learning (Ruthven, 1987). Maths is viewed by some people as being complicated and a number of adults admit that they are not successful in math-related tasks. It is therefore important to study how young children can be helped to make maths more fun and easier to understand so that they will develop a positive disposition towards it. That way, it is assumed that they will be more successful in learning maths. Aim To explore how numeracy skills may be better learned using manipulative materials in key stage 1. Objectives 1. To research related literature on how numeracy skills are developed in KS1 including what strategies teachers use to involve manipulative materials.... The researcher is in a position to compare existing literature and decide which information will best answer the research aim. A literature search strategy was devised, involving identification of certain keywords. Online libraries were searched for full-text articles with the key topics: Key stage 1 maths, use of manipulatives, maths strategies, numeracy skills, perception of math teachers and the like. Matches that came up were analyzed according to the relevance to the study based on the following inclusion criteria: information was from 2005 or more recent, studies conducted in the UK only, author’s credentials were compared and only sources which referenced their information were included. This inclusion criterion enabled papers relevant to math education, numeracy skills and math teaching to be accessed. Forward and backward citations were also used. The qualitative information was based on the literature search which was specifically relevant to developing numeracy skil ls with manipulative materials. In addition, research on quantative methods, specifically on survey questionnaires and interviews were also sought. All the references were charted in a literature matrix as shown in the Appendix 1. Literature review Piaget (1969) theorised that intellectual development is influenced by both maturation and experience. â€Å"Cognitive development is indicated by a growing ability to plan, to employ strategies for remembering and to seek solutions to problems† (Brewer, 2001, p.26). Piaget describes the cognitive development of children progress in stages. Key stage 1 children belong to the Pre-Operational period (two to seven years) of Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development. This period marks the time when a child