MATHEMATICS AT PRE-SCHOOL AGE:

BEYOND NUMBERS AND SHAPES.

Marianna Tzekaki

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland,
1999

1. Pre-school Mathematics Education, general

The importance of the pre-school mathematics education is generally recognized.
The involvement of a child in a rich and challenging environment with materials and
activities increases his intellectual, social and emotional development (Skilbeck,
1993).
However, there are many questions related to this education:
• Are these pre-school activities mathematical?
• Do the children understand the mathematical significance of what they are doing?
• What is the connection between the informal activities and the child’s learning of
mathematics?
• If the children don’t understand the mathematical meaning of what they do, will
be able to identify this meaning in the mathematics they will do later? (Bryant,
1997).
2. Pre-school Mathematics Education, views
Most of the Mathematics Educators consider the learning of mathematics as a long-
term process that begins with guiding children from their informal, context bound
methods to formal mathematics (Streenfland, L., 1993)
Other opinions, though, suggest that informal mathematics cannot guarantee school
success and that there is not much longitudinal research verifying the benefits of it.
Few existing comparative research has shown that preschools with informal
mathematical abilities could perform poorly in school, whereas some other children,
with difficulties in informal mathematics finally arrive in a good school achievement
(Ginsburg et al., 1997)
In the most cases, Pre-school Educators consider mathematics education as a
preparation for the future mathematical knowledge. Thus, the research concerning the
development of mathematical concepts in early childhood is related to numbers,
calculations and shapes, which are seen as a preparatory step for the future
introduction of Mathematics in primary school (Mansfield et all, 1996, Verschaffel &
De Corte, 1996).

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland, 1999 1
3. Pre-school Mathematics Education, our opinion
We believe that pre-school is more developmental than preparative in character.
The engagement of preschoolers with appropriate mathematical activities of a wide
range of concepts, and the enrichment of their experience with concepts, procedures
and situations enables them, first of all, to develop according to their age. This
development will support their future knowledge of formal mathematics, but the
interest of the child’s development is focused on the present.
Thus, the response to the skepticism concerning the benefits or the connection
between formal and informal mathematics could be given on the basis of
1. The nature of the mathematics concepts, related to this development
2. The role of the instruction, related to this nature
4. Content of preschool mathematics education, theoretical framework
Research concerning the learning and teaching of mathematics is generally based on
two axes:
• The mathematical knowledge itself, and
• The child’s potentiality
Contemporary views on mathematics education suggest
• Constructivist learning theories, as far as the child is concerned
(knowledge actively constructed by the cognizing subject and coming to know as
an adaptive process including interaction with a properly organized learning
environment) (Nesher & Kilpatrick, 1990, Cobb et al., 1996)
• Didactical situations, as far as the mathematical knowledge is concerned
(Vergnaud, 1994, 1997)
5. Content of preschool mathematics education, our approach
We accept that
A. The acquisition of a mathematical concept is a long-term process that passes
through different stages. Each stage integrates some aspects of this mathematical
concept through experience with appropriate mathematical situations that the
children gradually master. These situations follow a hierarchical complexity in
the terms of the mathematics involved. The mathematical knowledge itself
provides us with the conceptual field of the mathematical notion – target.
B. Coming to know is a process that organizes one’s world of experience, so coming
to know mathematics demands the child’s connection with an environment of
mathematical experience (we have presented this in our previous paper, EECERA,
1998).

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland, 1999 2
This environment consists of material and mental mathematical situations
(appropriately designed for each individual concept) which create the right
circumstances for the approach of the concepts we aim at. Acting within this
environment the child has the opportunity to get involved with activities that bring
into play mathematical knowledge, procedures and skills (Cobb et al., 1996, Aubrey,
1997).
This approach not only enables the kid to develop the concepts is ready for, but also
prepares him for the concepts to be developed in the future (Vygotsky, 1934). We
believe that, children’s incompetence in mathematical knowledge and skills may well
be due to lack of a wide initial mathematical experience (Streenfland, 1993, Wittman,
1995)
6. Content of preschool mathematics education, our project
Within this framework, we have already designed and studied mathematical activities
related to other concepts than numbers and shapes (Tzekaki, 1997). We implement
them in classes for more than 5 years.
These projects include a variety of mathematical concepts:
- geometric relations and properties (topological, projective and metric)
- geometric figures and configurations
- qualitative taxonomies, arrangements, correspondences, combinations
- numbers, arithmetical procedures, operations
- different kinds of measures
- symbolism and presentation of data
All the above concepts are the basis for the design of activities, games, constructions,
drawings, role playing etc, in an appropriate and attractive for the child way.
We don’t intend to “teach” all this mathematical knowledge. We only want to propose
an experience (body, hands, mind) which will provide the children with the necessary
conceptual background, a “protomathematical” stage of the future mathematical
knowledge.
In this paper, we focus on part of that project that has to do with projective and
symmetry concepts (Vergnaud, 1997, Hershkowitz et al., 1996).
We present the proposed didactic situations, prepared according to:
• The mathematical analysis of the concepts
• The variables of the proposed situations
• The children’s previous experience
That will explain the way of our work, as well as the results of classroom
implementation.

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland, 1999 3
7. Preschool mathematics project: Projective concepts
Our goal is to improve pupils’ visual awareness and ability, as well as their perceptual
flexibility.
Mathematical analysis
The projective concepts are related to properties and relations concerning
- Perspective, that means views of the objects in the real word, and
- Different kinds of projection, that means a transition from the real object to its
representation and back
Variables of the situations
The proposed situations can vary according to
- The complexity of real object involved, and
- The kind of representation used: photos, drawings, figures, shadows
Children experience
The children have an everyday perspective experience, they look and use all the time
photos, drawings, pictures etc. But this informal experience is not focused on the
properties and the relations involved. Moreover, the children don’t have experience
and competence of how the reality can be represented, the related properties and
relations.
Proposed activities
• As far as the situation is concerned,
Our activities move from simple to complex situations
Simple situation: Everyday objects, cube buildings, Lego constructions
Complex situation: Sophisticated objects (status), real buildings
• As far as the kind of representation is concerned,
Our activities move from the closest to the reality to the more abstract, where the
projective properties can be shown.
Different kind of representations: photos, pictures, drawings, figure
• As far as the child’s activity is concerned,
Our activities move from the consideration and the comparison, to the description
and the construction: compare real objects with their picture or photo, describe
what he/she sees, find the drawing of a real object or reconstruct an object from its
drawing
Examples of the proposed activities and materials

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland, 1999 4
Activities concerning perspective
1. The Byzantine church:
Complex situation, represented by photos, the child compare a real object with its
representation
2. Tower puzzle:
Simple situation, represented by drawing, the child reconstruct a representation
looking at the real object
Activities concerning projection
3. Where does this photo come from?
Medium situation, represented by photos, the child compares representation-real
object-representation
4. Cube building:
Simple situation, figure, the child reconstructs a real object from its representation
Classroom implementation
1. The children, in-groups of 4, try to identify the aspects of the church they look at
in the photos. If the identification is correct each child finds a photo, if not the
same photo is chosen by 2 children and another one rests.
The situation doesn’t allow direct perceptual correspondence between the view
and the photo, it demands understanding of the four different views of the
building and research of the entities that constitute this view. Moreover, the
situation provides an experience of how a real object is imprinted in a photo
2. The children, in groups of 4, try to reconstitute the aspect of the tower they view
by putting the pieces together. If the reconstitution is correct the pieces of the
puzzle fit.
The situation provides an experience of how the representation of a real object is
made.
3. The children play in groups of 6. Three of them take the photos, while the other 3
try to find out where the photo is taken from. When they believe they have found
the right position they, also, take a photo. After that they compare the two photos.
If their decision is correct the two photos are identical, if not they try again.
This situation gives a lot of experience of how a real object is imprinted in a
photo: framework, size, point of view.
4. Each child tries to reconstruct the cube building that is represented in a picture.
This situation gives a lot of experience of how a real object is represented in a
picture: perspectives, front and background, size, point of view.

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland, 1999 5
Results of the children’s activities
The recording of teaching situations and their study provides an impressive picture of
the multiplicity of children’s action, the immediacy in their involvement and the
creativity in their results. The children try to find solutions, overcome difficulties,
compare, discuss, give explanations and improve their conceptions about the notions
involved.
We have a lot of interesting findings in the activity with the photos.
In this case, the children gave a lot of explanations: why the photo was different, why
the objects looked bigger or smaller, why some objects were not in the picture. They
also made a lot of modifications of their first spontaneous action.
8. Preschool mathematics project : Symmetry
Our goal is to develop perceptual competencies of symmetric objects and figures, as
well as, properties and relationships.
Mathematical analysis
We have two kinds of symmetrical situations
- the Reflectional Symmetries
- the Symmetrical Objects or Figures (figures with axis of symmetry)
The symmetry concepts are related to the congruent figures (equal shapes and size),
equal distances from the axis and orientation.
Variables of the situations
The proposed situation vary accordingly to
- The kind of figure or shape
- The direction of the axis of symmetry and
- The framework in which the figure is drawn
Children experience
The children have a great experience of symmetrical situations because the symmetry
is very common in the real world (body, flowers, objects, buildings etc). Thus, the
identification of symmetrical objects is easy for them. But as they have this gestalt
conception they don’t have experience with the properties and the relations between
symmetric figures. They don’t even have metric competencies.
Proposed activities
• as far as the situation is concerned,
Our activities move from the simple to the complex shapes and figures, from the well
known to the unknown

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland, 1999 6
Simple and known situation: Everyday objects, human body, simple constructions or
figures
Complex and unknown situation: Traditional embroidery, ancient pots, complex
constructions or figures
• as far as the kind of symmetry is concerned,
Our activities propose only horizontal/vertical symmetrical shapes and figures.
• As far as the child’s activity is concerned,
Our activities move from the identification and the search of the axis with folding
procedures to the construction of the symmetric part of real objects or figures: simple
figures on squared paper, simple figures on blank paper.
Examples of the proposed activities and materials
Identification activities
1. Traditional embroidery and ancient pots
Complex and unknown situation with photos and real objects, the child identifies.
2. Pictures and figures
Simple and known situation, with representations of objects, the child verifies
symmetry by folding
3. Construction on squared paper
simple figures, the child construct symmetric pictures and figures
4. Construction on blank paper
More complex situation, the child constructs symmetric pictures and figures
Classroom implementation
1. The children examine the objects in a gestalt way. They receive a general idea of
symmetry in real objects.
2. The children fold the pictures and try to examine if they are symmetrical. They
realize that the two parts of the pictures fit exactly to each other.
3. They draw the symmetrical of the given pictures, supported by the squared paper.
They keep the shapes, the equality of distances and the orientation and some of
them succeed even in the equality of shapes.
4. They try to complete the unfinished figures. In this activity we can see the
properties and the relations of the symmetry the children have conceived.
Results of the children’s activities
The children seem to understand very easily the general notion of symmetry. They
identify the symmetric objects or pictures and find the axis of symmetry. In some
cases, the children were able to find a second axis of symmetry.

Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland, 1999 7
They use the folding procedure to verify their perceptual identification. This leads
them to cut folding papers and create symmetrical figures.
The construction is a more difficult procedure for this age. Some of their mistakes
with the orientation are frequent even for older pupils, as research about the learning
of symmetry has shown. We have only few cases with wrong shapes or distances
from the axis. More frequent are the size errors, especially on the blank paper, but
these are the most expected ones, as the children of this age and these classes have
very little idea about metrical properties.
In a next research, we have tried to improve these deficiencies: the children are
encouraged to use transparencies in order to control the result of their construction
and correct their mistakes. This intervention gave us very impressive results.
10. Discussion
The classroom implementation and the results of the children’s activities confirm our
initial view that the enrichment of children’s experiences with properly designed
situations leads them to widen the knowledge they usually hold.
Later, we have seen them transfer and use this knowledge in other situations and
problems, generalize their experience, even formulate and explain their ideas on their
own way. Even in cases where the first approach seemed inadequate, the concepts the
children dealt with appeared in later activities and evolved, supported by other
experiences.
The elements of this project encourage us to continue the development of
preschoolers’ mathematical education by enriching their mathematical activity with
new situations, problems, games and experience related to a variety of mathematical
concepts.

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Paper presented at the 9th Conference of EECERA, Abstracts, 101. Helsinski, Finland, 1999 9