Children's knowledge-building in arithmetic in the compulsory school and in the special school for intellectually disabled in Sweden

• Investigations have been conducted in a compulsory school and in a special school for intellectually disabled students in Sweden to examine children’s conceptual development in early arithmetic. The studies were based on the epistemology of radical constructivism and the methodology of multiple clinical interviews. A theoretical model elucidates the behavior patterns and the corresponding mental structures underlying them. The individual interviews were video recorded. In this chapter, results are shown, and various behavior patterns that emerge when the participants solve tasks in their own ways are exemplified, conceptually analyzed, and compared. The activated behavior patterns, which are responses to well-adapted contexts presented by the researcher, are compatible between children at the same conceptual level irrespective of age or type of school. The study gives substantial impetus to change the education in early arithmetic to harmonize with the children’s own ways of operating.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Matematik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Mathematics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

multiple clinical interview

counting schemes

conceptual progression

early arithmetic

remedial teaching

intellectually disabled

MATHEMATICS

MATEMATIK

specialpedagogik

Special Education

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kap (subject category)