[RUME] Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood

[Richard Hake]

Some mathematics educators  might be interested in a recent post 
"Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood" [Hake (2009)].  The 
abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: "Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward 
Excellence and Equity" [Cross et al. (2009)] may be of interest to 
math/science educators. Since, during July 2009, there have been over 
70 Math-Teach posts on the thread "Kamii's Articles on Algorithms in 
Arithmetic," I searched for "Kamii" on the online version of Cross et 
al. (2009)] to find references to: (a) "Young Children Reinvent 
Arithmetic: Implications of Piaget's Theory" [Kamii & Housman 
(2000)], (b) "Measurement of length: The need for a better approach 
to teaching" [Kamii & Clark (1997], and (c) "The development of 
logico-mathematical knowledge in block building activity at ages 1-4" 
[Kamii, Miyakawa, & Kato (2004).  According to her website, Constance 
Kamii studied under Jean Piaget, on and off for 15 years. Wikipedia 
states that Kamii's ideas influenced the NCTM standards. 
Incidentally, judging from the end-of-chapter references in Cross et 
al., early childhood mathematics is currently more the province of 
psychologists, cognitive scientists, and education specialists than 
mathematicians.  However, mathematicians might have much to offer, 
witness the contributions of physicist Robert Karplus to early 
childhood science instruction.
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To access the complete 25 kB post, please click on <http://tinyurl.com/luayng>

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands.
<rrhake at earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/>


REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2009. "Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood," online on 
the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://tinyurl.com/luayng>. Post of 27 
Jul 2009 16:02:41 -0700 to AERA-L, Math-Teach, Net-Gold, & PhysLnrR.