Young Children's Understanding of Addition Concepts

Children's knowledge of concrete versions of additive composition, commutativity and associativity was investigated in two studies. In Study 1, 24 four- to five-year-olds and 25 five- to six-year-olds judged the equivalence of conceptually related addition problems presented using groups of obj...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational psychology (Dorchester-on-Thames) 2002-12, Vol.22 (5), p.513-532
Main Authors: Canobi, Katherine H., Reeve, Robert A., Pattison, Philippa E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addition
Addition & subtraction
Australia
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child development
Commutativity (Mathematics)
Computation
Concept formation
Developmental psychology
Early childhood education
Educational psychology
Educational Research
Foreign Countries
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Higher Education
Interviews
Kindergarten
Mathematics
Number concepts
Preschool children
Primary Education
Problem Solving
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Young Children
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Summary:Children's knowledge of concrete versions of additive composition, commutativity and associativity was investigated in two studies. In Study 1, 24 four- to five-year-olds and 25 five- to six-year-olds judged the equivalence of conceptually related addition problems presented using groups of objects. In Study 2, 45 five- to six-year-olds judged related problems and solved addition problems. Both studies indicated that concrete versions of principles were salient to most children although associativity was more difficult than commutativity and there were considerable individual differences in children's understanding. Study 1 results indicated that schoolchildren were more accurate at recognising additive composition than preschoolers and Study 2 results suggested that commutativity knowledge was related to using advanced counting strategies for solving addition problems. Overall, the research supports the claim that examining early knowledge of addition principles provides important insights into children's emerging part-whole knowledge and mathematical development.
ISSN:0144-3410
1469-5820
DOI:10.1080/0144341022000023608