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Welcome to the international Children's Mathematics Network

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* CMG - some pointers *

Children's Mathematical Graphics are not about 'recording', and whilst young children may sometimes choose to use marks to communicate their mathematical thinking, Children's Mathematical Graphics are much more than mark-making!

 

  • The importance  of  Children's Mathematical Graphics is that (when well understood and supported by adults) children will come to understand the abstract written language of mathematics at a deep level.
  • Children use their Mathematical Graphics to communicate their mathematical thinking.
  • It's about processes, not products.
  • In order to promote young children's freely chosen use of Mathematical Graphics, they need personally meaningful contexts. For this reason, open contexts including open small groups, and free and spontaneous pretend play are potentially the richest.
  • In democratic learning contexts, adults do not need to ask children to represent anything mathematical.
  • Young children learn from adults' frequently modelling a range of graphical signs and texts in contexts that are personally meaningful to the children. They also learning intertextually, especially from their peers' graphical texts (Worthington & van Oers, 2023).
  • Children do not need any resources to count in order to help them use their early graphical signs (though counting with small resources can be valuable at other times).

 

Children's Mathematical Graphics do not represent the entire early years mathematics curriculum, but can be are a valuable aspect of it.

 

Worthington, M., Dobber, M., & van Oers, B. (2023). Intertextuality and the advance of mathematisation in young children’s inscriptions. Research Papers in Education. 39(5), 797-821.

 

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