|
Eugene A. Geist Ph.D.
Abstract for presentation at the Conference on Logical-Mathematical
thinking in Early Childhood Education
In this presentation, I will offer evidence to support the
idea of a mathematics acquisition device. The Mathematics
acquisition device is an innate part of every human mind that
assists and makes it possible for humans to learn and understand
mathematics. We will discuss how the child's brain and natural
development supports the learning of math. For many years mathematics
has been thought of as a set of skills and facts to me learned
or memorized. The idea of the Mathematics Acquisition Device
(MAD) proposes that early mathematics learning is more rooted
in developmental processes of the brain and that learning mathematics
is not just a collection of facts and skills. Rather, children
use natural thinking abilities to order their world using mathematics
and logic and that thinking about the world mathematically
may be a natural part of our intellectual endowment as humans.
Just as it is hard to keep children from learning language,
there are basic math concepts that children acquire without
direct teaching and which could never be taught through direct
teaching.
We will also examine milestones in the development of mathematical
thinking in children and what the development of these milestones
mean for the learning of mathematics in young children. Evidence
shows that many of these milestones are caused by the natural
course of development. I will propose parallels between the
learning of language and the acquisition of mathematics and
how these biological, brain based developmental milestones
can be supported by environmental variables and facilitation
from the teacher and implications for curriculum development,
teaching methods, guidance, and textbooks for children. |