Laura Thurman

Module ITE101 Theories for Maths

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There are 6 main theories; Behaviourism, Cognitive, Social, Developmental, Constructivism and Humanism all of these theories are used to improve the education and development of a child, as you simply can not be an effective teacher without knowing how learners learn. Banyard (1953) Suggests that in 1952 Piaget proposed a theory of cognitive development that he considered to be universal, regardless of a childs background or culture. He called it a Stage theory because in his opinion there are set stages in which a child develops through their childhood years, the stages are called; Sensorimotor 0-2 years, Pre-operational 2-6 years, Concrete Operational 7-11 years and 12 above. Sensorimotor Stage To develop the mathematical capability of a child in this stage, the childs ability might be enhanced if he is allowed ample opportunity to act on the environment in unrestricted (but safe) ways in order to start building concepts. Evidence suggests that children at the Sensorimotor stage have some understanding of the concepts of numbers and counting. Educators of children in this stage of development should lay a solid mathematical foundation by providing activities that incorporate counting and thus enhance childrens conceptual development of number. CLICK THIS TO SEE SOME SENSORIMOTOR ACTIVITIES Pre-Operational Stage A child at this stage who understands that adding four to five yields nine cannot yet perform the reverse operation of taking four from nine. Childrens perceptions in this stage of development are generally restricted to one aspect or dimension of an object at the expense of the other aspects. For example, Piaget tested the concept of conservation by pouring the same amount of liquid into two similar containers. When the liquid from one container is poured into a third, wider container, the level is lower and the child thinks there is less liquid in the third container. CLICK THIS TO SEE SOME PRE-OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES Concrete Operational Stage In this third stage, it is characterized by remarkable cognitive growth, language and basic skills remarkably improve, looking at the liquid experiment as well as the child seeing how tall the liquid is they have also noticed that the other jug is wider, and would consider that this would make a difference. Hands on experiments and multiple ways of representing a mathematical solution can be a way of developing within this cognitive stage. CLICK THIS TO SEE SOME CONCRETE-OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES Formal Operational Stage This stage is characterized by the learners applying their logic directly to real objects or situations. At the beginning of this stage teachers should continue to use the strategies used in the concrete operational stage, but

Laura Thurman

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start to bring in things like charts and illustrations, encourage the students to explain how they solved the problem etc.