Abstract
Young children’s problem posing and problem solving are rarely the focus of research. In stories told by teachers, in focus group interviews about photos that they took of children engaging in mathematics in their kindergarten, we also found that problem posing and problem solving were rarely discussed explicitly. However, an analysis using Bishop’s universal mathematical activities of Explaining and Playing enabled four different components that the teachers paid attention to, to be identified. These components were to do with the routine or non-routine nature of the problems; known or unknown problem-solving strategies; body actions or verbal explanations; playing by exploring different scenarios or following rules. Identifying what teachers noticed about children’s problem posing and problem solving provides insights into their professional knowledge.
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Notes
- 1.
We use the term “barnehage” for institutions providing early childhood education and care (ECEC) for 1–5-year-old children in Norway. Although this term is translated to “kindergarten”, kindergarten carries a variety of meanings across countries, so we choose to use barnehage to recognise the specificity of ECEC in Norway.
- 2.
Bishop’s 6 mathematical activities are capitalised to distinguish them from everyday meanings of the terms.
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Fosse, T., Lange, T., Meaney, T. (2020). Kindergarten Teachers’ Stories About Young Children’s Problem Posing and Problem Solving. In: Carlsen, M., Erfjord, I., Hundeland, P.S. (eds) Mathematics Education in the Early Years. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34776-5_21
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