Promoting the Learning of Numbers

05/03/2004

Promoting the Learning of Numbers

"Finally it has penetrated my thick skull. This life--this moment--is no dress rehearsal. This is it." - F. Knebel

PROMOTING THE LEARNING OF NUMBERS

In the May 2003 issue of Child Care Information Exchange, David Elkind provides guidance on how children progress through learning of numbers in his article, "How Children Build Their Understanding of Numbers." In the article he started by explaining levels of meaning of numbers...

"Number words can be used as at least three different levels of meaning. At the simplest level, number words can be used as names. When number words are used in this way, we refer to them as nominal numbers. A familiar example is the use of numbers to identify athletes. An athlete who wears the number 33, to illustrate, does not have 33 of anything. A number used in this way is arbitrary and is just a convenient way of identifying players during a game.

"At the next higher level, numbers can be used in an ordinal way to identify a position in a series. The numbers awarded to an ice skater, for his or her performance, are ordinal numbers. These numbers can be used to rank skaters, but cannot be used to specify exactly how much better one skater is than another. A skater who is ranked 5.5 is not .5 units better than a skater who is ranked 5.0. We cannot add, subtract, multiply, or divide these numbers because there are no units of ice skating.

"It is only at the highest level of interval or true numbers, that numerical terms represent equal units. And it is only when numbers represent equal units that we can operate upon them arithmetically. A nickel, for example, is equal to five pennies and one quarter is equal to five nickels or 25 pennies. Coin denominations can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided because they all represent different quantities of equal units.

"When young children build their concept of numbers, they progress from nominal, to ordinal, to interval numbers."

Kay Albrecht uses this article as the basis of an "Out of the Box Training Kit" for implementing a staff training session. To review and order this Kit, go to: http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0171

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.