The purpose of this study is to develop the program for early childhood mathematics based on the constructivism instruction model and examine its effects on young children's mathematical concepts, mathematical process skills, and mathematical attitude...
The purpose of this study is to develop the program for early childhood mathematics based on the constructivism instruction model and examine its effects on young children's mathematical concepts, mathematical process skills, and mathematical attitude.
To develop the program for early childhood mathematics based on the constructivism instruction model, this study was conducted in the following four steps.
First, literatures related to this subject were reviewed and oversea programs were analyzed. Second, 120 kindergarten teachers were interviewed to analyze teachers's recognition about mathematics education for young children. Third, the constructivism instruction model for early childhood mathematics education was developed. The five phases of the constructivism instruction model for early childhood mathematics education are: motivation, exploration, sharing thinking, expanding thinking, and evaluation. Fourth, the program for early childhood mathematics based on the constructivism instruction model for was developed.
The subject of this study consisted of 60 five-year old young children who were enrolled in two classes at two kindergartens. Young children divided into two groups : experimental group with 30 young children and control group with 30 young children. The experimental group were involved in this program.
The research proceeding has done 32 times for 10 weeks. Data were collected by young children's mathematical concept test, mathematical process skill test, and mathematical attitude test. The data were analyzed with MANCOVA.
The result showed that the program for early childhood mathematics education based on the constructivism instruction model affected the improvement of young children's mathematical concepts, mathematical process skills, and mathematical attitude.
In conclusion, the program for early childhood mathematics education based on the constructivism instruction model should be useful to teach mathematics for young children and could be applied in kindergarten classrooms to promote young children's mathematical concepts, mathematical process skills, and mathematical attitude.