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Introduction

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Mathematics Education in the Early Years

Abstract

In this chapter, we introduce the conference from which the chapters in this book originated. Then we discuss some of the background issues in order to describe the need for discussing issues to do with construction and instruction in early childhood mathematics. In particular, we discuss the evidence to do with whether children can learn mathematics through play and the role of the teacher in this discussion. Finally, we discuss the chapters in relation to the “dance of construction with instruction”.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As editors, we asked all contributors to provide their data in the original language as well as an English translation. We have done this for two reasons. The first is to encourage speakers of the original language to have opportunities to gain the nuances embedded in the original language which may be difficult to translate. The second is to contribute to discussions of the privilege of English in mathematics education research (Meaney 2013). Although not all authors were able to provide data in the original language, many did so or were willing to make them available to readers.

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Helenius, O., Johansson, M.L., Lange, T., Meaney, T., Wernberg, A. (2016). Introduction. In: Meaney, T., Helenius, O., Johansson, M., Lange, T., Wernberg, A. (eds) Mathematics Education in the Early Years. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23935-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23935-4_1

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