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Ecuadorian Kindergartners’ Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity Development: Contribution of Numerical Abilities and Quality of Mathematics Education

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Contemporary Research and Perspectives on Early Childhood Mathematics Education

Part of the book series: ICME-13 Monographs ((ICME13Mo))

Abstract

Young children’s spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) predicts their later mathematical competencies. In this study we investigated the development of SFON in Ecuadorian kindergartners as well as the contribution of early numerical abilities and the quality of mathematics education to this development. The participants were 100 kindergartners drawn from 10 classrooms. Children received two SFON tasks, one at the beginning and one at the end of the school year, and an early numerical abilities achievement test at the beginning of the school year. The quality of mathematics education was assessed twice via the COEMET instrument. Results demonstrated limited SFON development during the kindergarten year, with large individual differences in and highly consistent SFON performances. Additionally, children’s SFON development during the kindergarten year was predicted by their SFON tendency and early numerical abilities at the start of the year. The quality of mathematics education did not contribute to children’s SFON development. The scientific and practical implications of these results are discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cuenca, Av. 12 de Abril s/n, Cuenca, Ecuador

    Gina Bojorque

  2. Center for Instructional Psychology and Technology, KU Leuven, Dekenstraat 2, Post box 3773, 3000, Louvain, Belgium

    Gina Bojorque, Joke Torbeyns & Lieven Verschaffel

  3. Turku Institute for Advanced Studies and Department of Teacher Education, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Minna Hannula-Sormunen

  4. Center for Educational Effectiveness and Evaluation, KU Leuven, Dekenstraat 2, Post box 3773, 3000, Louvain, Belgium

    Daniël Van Nijlen

Authors
  1. Gina Bojorque
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  2. Joke Torbeyns
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  3. Minna Hannula-Sormunen
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  4. Daniël Van Nijlen
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  5. Lieven Verschaffel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gina Bojorque .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Iliada Elia

  2. Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Joanne Mulligan

  3. Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Ann Anderson

  4. Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Anna Baccaglini-Frank

  5. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Education Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Christiane Benz

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Bojorque, G., Torbeyns, J., Hannula-Sormunen, M., Van Nijlen, D., Verschaffel, L. (2018). Ecuadorian Kindergartners’ Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity Development: Contribution of Numerical Abilities and Quality of Mathematics Education. In: Elia, I., Mulligan, J., Anderson, A., Baccaglini-Frank, A., Benz, C. (eds) Contemporary Research and Perspectives on Early Childhood Mathematics Education. ICME-13 Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73432-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73432-3_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73431-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73432-3

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