Thesis (M.S. in Psychology)--Vanderbilt University, May 2008. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The study is concerned with the change in mathematical conceptual understanding and computational skills of elementary school pupils during an academic period of twelve months in selected schools using mathematics resource personnel. Researching instructional techniques for mathematics concepts being taught in the elementary school and assisting in the implementation of the research into classroom procedure were the functions of the resource personnel. A total evaluation of the data was used to form the following conclusions confined to the population used in the study and the experimental procedure which was followed: 1. The use of mathematics resource personnel did not prove effective in improving the computational skills of the first or third grade elementary school pupil. 2. The use of mathematics resource personnel did not prove effective in improving the conceptual understanding of the first grade elementary school pupil. 3. The use of mathematics resource personnel did prove effective in improving the conceptual understanding of the third grade elementary school pupil following a six month period of treatment. 4. The use of mathematics resource personnel did not prove effective in improving the conceptual understanding of the third (now fourth) grade elementary school pupil following a twelve month period of treatment.

This is a report of an investigation of children’s beliefs about the nature of mathematics, the nature of learning and helping factors for learning mathematics. The study aimed to investigate whether beliefs held by eight learners of eight to nine years of age could be articulated and portrayed. It aimed also to develop procedures to facilitate this process, to portray children’s beliefs from their responses to the research procedures, to provide insights into possible complexities and subtleties of young learners’ beliefs, to reflect upon the significance for the mathematics classroom of the insights gained, and to reflect upon the value of the procedures developed for the study. The research took the form of individual case studies of four girls and four boys of eight to nine years of age from two schools in suburban Melbourne. Four children were teacher-perceived low achievers in mathematics and four were teacher-perceived high achievers in mathematics. The children were each interviewed on ten occasions over a five-month period using thirty semi-structured, creative interviewing procedures that were developed or adapted for the study that included drawing, writing, discussing scenarios presented through photographs, video snippets and other children’s drawings, ordering of descriptors, and responding to questionnaires presented verbally. The interview data consisted of transcripts and artefacts. Some class administered tasks, lesson observations and interviews with the mathematics teachers provided background information. Analysis of interview responses was undertaken through a criss-cross examination in which themes were drawn from each child’s data. Responses were not judged for correctness or for a match to any predetermined categories and the researcher sought to take a stance of neutrality to the phenomena under study. The research suggests that teachers and others involved in the education of young learners of mathematics should know that: it is possible to gain insights into children’s beliefs about maths (the term used most commonly by the children), learning, and helping factors for learning maths; to gain insights into young children’s beliefs, it is important to have dialogue with the children to avoid making assumptions about their interpretations or meanings; the creative interviewing procedures developed for the present research are helpful as they can stimulate reflection and prompt conversation; young children’s beliefs can be complex, subtle, broad and deep; young children’s beliefs are individually constructed and differ from child to child; children may not see mathematics concepts in the same ways as their teachers and other adults; beliefs are sufficiently diverse and significant to affect the way children see the mathematics learning situation; although the beliefs of children of eight to nine years of age may, on the surface, appear simplistic and naïve, they are not necessarily so. Young learners are able to reflect on their own and others’ experiences and often construct complex beliefs. There is a lot happening in the minds of these children. The research suggests also that it is important that educators do not to make assumptions about: what children see as maths (or mathematics); what children see as learning; and what children see as helping factors for learning maths. A key factor facilitating children’s reflection and expression was the range of visual, verbal, and text-based creative interviewing strategies developed for the present study. The individual procedures provided suitable prompts to allow young children to articulate or represent their beliefs. The semi-structured procedures, through which ideas were explored on multiple occasions, followed by theme-based, criss-cross analysis of interview transcripts and artefacts, resulted in rich and trustworthy portrayals of beliefs, increasing the validity of the findings. The research provides the education community with insights into young children’s beliefs that are unlikely to emerge within the day to day activity of the classroom and, through the availability of the research procedures, facilitates further gaining of insights into beliefs either by classroom teachers or other researchers.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:54:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Iraci Balbina Goncalves Silva.pdf: 12380813 bytes, checksum: 2a3aef85a7ebfec4c4f3ed959b349354 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-14 / This study was about the formation of mathematics concepts in child education, in historicalcultural perspective, and this is one of the relevant expressions of this work, since the most of publications, actually, is substantiated in assemptions of Piaget. From theoretical concerning are known Vigotsky, Leontiev, Elkonin and Davydov works. The inquiring procedure adopted to investigate how preschool child may appropriate of mathematics concepts, was based in development of education proposal from Davydove. The research consisted in accomplishment and attendance of a didatic - formative test, in 2009 for four months (May, June, August and September), in an institution of child education, from Public education of Silvânia, Goiás State. There were twenty children and they were about five years old. The purpose was to attend the development process of mental formations coming from the development of the teaching plan drawn up by the teacher and searcher of the group. The research procedures included: a) Pedagogical practice observation, seeing the interection between teacher and children and between children and pairs; b)Analysis of children productions; c)Interviewing the teacher; d)The analysis of the evidence of the mothers, about their children development, to confirm the collected news about the learning of those children. The results showed that the children got, in a satisfactory level, to appropriate of "number concept". / O presente estudo teve como foco a formação de conceitos matemáticos na educação infantil, na perspectiva histórico-cultural, sendo este um dos aspectos relevantes deste trabalho, uma vez que a maior parte das publicações, na atualidade, encontra-se fundamentada em pressupostos piagetianos. Do referencial teórico constam obras de Vygotsky, Leontiev, Elkonin e Davydov. O procedimento investigativo adotado, a fim de pesquisar sobre o como a criança pré-escolar pode se apropriar de conceitos matemáticos, baseou-se na proposta de ensino desenvolvimental elaborado por Davydov. A pesquisa consistiu na realização e acompanhamento de um experimento didático-formativo, durante quatro meses (maio, junho, agosto e setembro), no ano de 2009, em uma instituição de educação infantil, pertencente a rede pública de ensino do município de Silvânia, no estado de Goiás. A turma era composta por vinte crianças na faixa etária de cinco anos e o objetivo era acompanhar o processo de desenvolvimento de formações mentais a partir do desenvolvimento do plano de ensino elaborado conjuntamente pela professora da turma e a pesquisadora. Os procedimentos de pesquisa incluiram: a) Observação da prática pedagógica, focando na interação entre a professora e crianças e delas com seus pares; b) Análise dos diálogos das crianças; c) Análise das produções das crianças; d) Entrevista com a professora; e) Análise do depoimento das mães acerca do desenvolvimento dos filhos, a fim de confirmar os dados coletados acerca da aprendizagem das crianças.Os resultados apontaram que as crianças conseguiram, num nível satisfatório, se apropriar do conceito de número.