ACER eNews


Counting is not the only way to add up Counting is not the only way that children can solve arithmetic problems a mathematics conference in Melbourne heard on 17 August. In a presentation to the ACER annual conference Robert Reeve, Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne, described how Indigenous children from remote areas of the Northern Territory were able to add successfully by reproducing a pattern from memory. Reeve and his colleagues tested 32 children aged four to seven years: 13 Warlpiri-speaking children and 10 Anindilyakawa-speaking children from two remote areas in the Northern Territory and nine English-speaking children from Melbourne. “The Warlpiri and Anindilyakwa languages have very limited number vocabularies,” Professor Reeve explained. “Although these languages contain quantifiers such as few, many, a lot and several these are not relevant number or counting words since they don’t refer to exact numbers.” All of the children in the study were asked to reproduce two groups of counter tokens placed on a mat by a researcher. Researchers were curious to find out how the Indigenous children would approach the problem when they were not familiar with the concept of counting. Indigenous children tended to use a pattern strategy to solve the problem by remembering how the two groups of tokens appeared on the mat. When using a pattern strategy the Northern Territory children were more likely to solve the problem correctly. None of the Indigenous children used their fingers to help them with the task. In contrast most of the children from Melbourne tackled the task by counting the number of tokens they saw on the mat and attempted to select the same amount. They almost never used a pattern strategy. “The findings suggest that counting words are far from being necessary for exact arithmetic,” Professor Reeve said. “Rather counting words offer one strategy among others and the pattern strategy appears effective for Indigenous children.” “Previous research has shown that Indigenous Australians seem to be very good at remembering spatial patterns,” Professor Reeve explained. “Indigenous Australians rarely transmit information or skills by verbal instruction. Children are encouraged to learn by observation. This may mean that children acquire skills of remembering what they see earlier or better than non-indigenous children.” Associate Professor Robert Reeve is currently an associate professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He runs the Developmental Math Cognition group in Psychology Sciences, members of which study the nature and origins of children’s mathematical learning difficulties. Robert Reeve’s conference paper, Using mental representations of space when words are unavailable: Studies of enumeration and arithmetic in Indigenous Australia and presentation slides are available from the ACER research repository. « Back to eNews
Copyright © Australian Council for Educational Research 2013 All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission. Please address any requests to reproduce information to communications@acer.edu.au Subscribe Unsubscribe Australian Council for Educational Research Private Bag 55, Camberwell, Victoria Australia 3124 Tel: + 61 3 9277 5555 Fax: + 61 3 9277 5500 Web: www.acer.edu.au

Counting is not the only way that children can solve arithmetic problems a mathematics conference in Melbourne heard on 17 August.

In a presentation to the ACER annual conference Robert Reeve, Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne, described how Indigenous children from remote areas of the Northern Territory were able to add successfully by reproducing a pattern from memory.

Reeve and his colleagues tested 32 children aged four to seven years: 13 Warlpiri-speaking children and 10 Anindilyakawa-speaking children from two remote areas in the Northern Territory and nine English-speaking children from Melbourne.

“The Warlpiri and Anindilyakwa languages have very limited number vocabularies,” Professor Reeve explained.

“Although these languages contain quantifiers such as few, many, a lot and several these are not relevant number or counting words since they don’t refer to exact numbers.”

All of the children in the study were asked to reproduce two groups of counter tokens placed on a mat by a researcher. Researchers were curious to find out how the Indigenous children would approach the problem when they were not familiar with the concept of counting.

Indigenous children tended to use a pattern strategy to solve the problem by remembering how the two groups of tokens appeared on the mat. When using a pattern strategy the Northern Territory children were more likely to solve the problem correctly. None of the Indigenous children used their fingers to help them with the task.

In contrast most of the children from Melbourne tackled the task by counting the number of tokens they saw on the mat and attempted to select the same amount. They almost never used a pattern strategy.

“The findings suggest that counting words are far from being necessary for exact arithmetic,” Professor Reeve said.

“Rather counting words offer one strategy among others and the pattern strategy appears effective for Indigenous children.”

“Previous research has shown that Indigenous Australians seem to be very good at remembering spatial patterns,” Professor Reeve explained.

“Indigenous Australians rarely transmit information or skills by verbal instruction. Children are encouraged to learn by observation. This may mean that children acquire skills of remembering what they see earlier or better than non-indigenous children.”

Associate Professor Robert Reeve is currently an associate professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He runs the Developmental Math Cognition group in Psychology Sciences, members of which study the nature and origins of children’s mathematical learning difficulties.

Robert Reeve’s conference paper, Using mental representations of space when words are unavailable: Studies of enumeration and arithmetic in Indigenous Australia and presentation slides are available from the ACER research repository.

Counting is not the only way to add up