Finnish and Swedish children’s spontaneous mathematical  expressions inspired by pictures

• Every child in Finland and Sweden has possibility to get pre-school education, in separate pre-school classes, and after that nine years compulsory primary school education. Concerning their math skills development, it is important that children have opportunities to express their own marks and meanings. In this paper we study six to eight year old Finnish (n=100) and Swedish (n=100) children’s spontaneous expressions measured by a pictorial test. In our cross-cultural comparative study we found some similarities and some differences. Both Finnish and Swedish children expressed most numbers and exercises which they use to practice in their early school years. Swedish children expressed significantly more numbers and exercises than the Finnish ones, whereas Finnish children expressed more word problems and mental models. Our cross-cultural interpretation is mainly based on different emphasis in Finnish and Swedish core curriculums. Finnish children follow an early school education that emphasises more learning skills and social development than academic skills learning. Swedish curriculum emphasises more subject-specific knowledge in mathematics.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Subject didactics

Ämnesdidaktik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)