Abstract
Children’s knowledge of arithmetic concepts is considered critical in the development of current and later mathematic skills. If children understand numbers, operations, and the relations among them, they are more likely to make sense of mathematics and be more successful problem solvers. This chapter discusses the importance of arithmetic concepts and how they fit with children’s knowledge of arithmetic facts and arithmetic problem-solving procedures. How concepts are assessed by researchers is presented as well as current research on the development of six specific arithmetic concepts: identity, negation , commutativity, inversion , associativity, and equivalence. Several ways in which teachers and parents can increase children’s knowledge and understanding of arithmetic and can promote the use of that knowledge to improve their mathematical skills are proposed.
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Robinson, K.M. (2019). Arithmetic Concepts in the Early School Years. In: Robinson, K., Osana, H., Kotsopoulos, D. (eds) Mathematical Learning and Cognition in Early Childhood. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12895-1_10
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