SCIENCE@home

Mathematical Symbols, Learning Experiences and Number Sense: A Study of Three Grades Primary School Students

Hua Dong,Qiang Wei,Weiran Cui,Wen-Jing Lu

Published 2019 in DEStech Transactions on Economics Business and Management

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the characteristics of three grades primary school students on number sensing. The performances on number sensing are dissimilar with different learning materials. While learning experiences also contributed to their number sensing process. 40 students selected from three grades were required to finish selection tasks. All 40 students had to select numerical value larger one from two spatial cubes, or from two Arabic digits, or from two lowercase Chinese character numbers. The results indicate that all students had easier selection process with Arabic numbers, while they had relative greater difficulty in making selection on numerical value with spatial cubes. The comparisons on mean scores and on reaction times from different-grade students indicate that all fourth-grade students had more learning experiences to develop number sense well, therefore their performances were better than other two grades’. Introduction Mathematics is a complex subject, involving quantity, structure, change, space, information and many other concepts[1]. Geary pinpointed number sense in 1993[2], he suggested that number sense should been considered as a basis for developing mathematical learning ability. Number sense is actually an abstract understanding of numerical value. Since Arabic numerals is the most basic mathematical symbols with the closest relationship with the abstract meaning of numbers, the performance on number selection task with Arabic numerals would took shorter reaction time with higher score. However, Chinese numerals and spatial cubes will go through a transcoding process before comparison. This makes it hard for them to perform as well as they did on Arabic numerals tasks. Therefore, these three typical mathematical symbols were used as experiment materials to test students’ number sense. Number sense rooted early in life well before students enter school and developed with precise representation of small numbers, however, its influence won’t weaken over on time [3] and can be enhanced by practices[3,4]. During math learning and practicing, the first ability to learn is to perceive the meaning of a series of mathematical symbols. It plays a basic role in the development of mathematical ability. In this study, three grades primary school students were chosen to indicated the development of primary school students’ mathematical ability. Materials and Methods Participants Forty participants were selected from a larger group of 245 primary-school students. Ninety of the students were first-grade students, eighty-six were third-grade students, sixty-nine were forth-grade students. Selection was based upon Chinese Rating Scale of Basic Mathematical Competencies in the Elementary School Level(CRSBMC)[5], contains 12 time-limit missions which were number-copying, addition, subtraction, number continuation, multiplication, division, blanks filling, size comparison, length estimation, figure count, cubes count and number connection. All first-grade students take 10 missions apart from multiplication and division which were not included in their learning experiences. All third-grade and forth-grade students were administered mathematical ability from 12 missions. Forty students (14 for first-grade, 12 for third-grade, 14 for 937 forth-grade) were available, for each of their sum total score from tested missions was nearly as the same as the mean. Materials Participants were presented with two digits in Arabic or two numbers symbolized in spatial cubes either lowercase Chinese character number (shows as Fig. 1). Figure 1. (a) Shows Cubes Materials(SC); (b) Shows Arabic Numbes(AN); (c) Shows Lowercase Chinese Character Number(CN). In computer tasks, students were asked to select numerical value larger ones presented on computer screen. There were 10 trails with material (a) items, 10 trails with material (b) items, 10 trails with material (c) items. Items were presented in a random order. Each item was presented after a 1000ms fixation point, remained visible presentation for 1000ms. After making comparison between two numerical values, students would press ‘f’ key or ‘j’ key on the computer keyboard in order to make a response on selection and trigger the next trail. Reaction times and errors were recorded by the computer.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-8 of 8 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY