The purpose of this study is to understand how children experience the mathematical activities at role playing in kindergarten by means of ethnographic study. The researcher intends to analyze contents of mathematical activities they experience by men...
The purpose of this study is to understand how children experience the mathematical activities at role playing in kindergarten by means of ethnographic study. The researcher intends to analyze contents of mathematical activities they experience by menas of such plays and mathematical activities according to the flow of role playing.
To meet the above purpose, three questions have been set up as follows.
1. How do the children experience mathematical activities at the role playing?
2. What kind of mathematical activities do children experience at the flow of role playing?
This study was carries out in a class of five-year old children, within a Buddel kindergarten located in Seoul. The subiect were thirty children and one teacher. Data were collected through twenty five participating observations, two formal teacher-interview and unformal child-interview by inquiry during a period from June 20, 2005 to September 9, 2005. Data were collected field jotting, audio-tape recording, documental collection, photographing, and video-tape recording. The content of field jotting, audio-tape and video-tape recording were transcribed in field notes, and the contents of interview were duplicated and materialized. While collecting the data, analytical notes about the data were written. After the collection was completed, full-scale analysis and interpretation were carried out. The cases were coded, categorized and analyzed according to Bodgan & Biklen(1992)'s methodology.
Through this study, the followings have been concluded.
First, children experience variety of mathematical contents through role playing. According to the physical characteristics of toys or situation, children sort out the toys with appropriate categorization. Children show two types of ordering either by physical characteristics of toys such as their volumes or lenth or by the relationship in the role playing. Also, children go through mathematical process in counting or numbering toys and basic calculation with money in certain role playing. They have been offered of opportunity of approximation when setting up roles and responsibilities and also been offered of the chance to express verbally in words the measurements they attained with measuring tools. In addition, children acquire basic concept of space in defining the physical space available for certain roles and in conversation with other children regarding those spaces, they also learn how to express in words the spaces and geometry. In placing the toys according to their physical characteristics, children experience the concept of patterns, which is also learned when ordering what to play first. Statistics is another part of mathematics that children experience mostly when deciding or assigning roles.
Secondly, children experience various mathematical activities according to the flow of role playing. More specifically, children experience categorization, ordering, spacing, statistics, etc. according to the them of role playing and in role assigning. Role playing has flows and multiple mathematical activities are immanent in these flows. For so, children, just by following these flows, naturally encounter manifold mathematical activities. Also in the cleaning flow after the play, children show certain patterns of ordering toys by classification, measurement, and comparison.