SeminarRecording AvailableCognition

How Children Discover Mathematical Structure through Relational Mapping

Schedule
Thursday, June 30, 2022
04:00 UTC
Kelly Mix

Prof

University of Maryland

Watch recording
Host: Analogical Minds

Recording

Event Information

Recording

Available

Host

Analogical Minds

Duration

90 minutes

Abstract

A core question in human development is how we bring meaning to conventional symbols. This question is deeply connected to understanding how children learn mathematics—a symbol system with unique vocabularies, syntaxes, and written forms. In this talk, I will present findings from a program of research focused on children’s acquisition of place value symbols (i.e., multidigit number meanings). The base-10 symbol system presents a variety of obstacles to children, particularly in English. Children who cannot overcome these obstacles face years of struggle as they progress through the mathematics curriculum of the upper elementary and middle school grades. Through a combination of longitudinal, cross-sectional, and pretest-training-posttest approaches, I aim to illuminate relational learning mechanisms by which children sometimes succeed in mastering the place value system, as well as instructional techniques we might use to help those who do not.

Topics

STEMcross-sectional studyinstructional techniqueslearning mechanismslongitudinal studymatematical developmentmathematical structuremultidigit numbersplace valuerelational mappingsymbol system

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