The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of storytelling mathematics activity on the mathematic ability and mathematical attitude, and then provide basic data that could utilize storytelling activity as an effective mathematics educational ...
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of storytelling mathematics activity on the mathematic ability and mathematical attitude, and then provide basic data that could utilize storytelling activity as an effective mathematics educational methods that could stimulate young children's mathematical development.
A research question was posed:
1) 'What is the influence of storytelling mathematics activity upon preschooler's mathematic ability?
2) 'What is the influence of storytelling mathematics activity upon preschooler's mathematic attitude?
The subjects in this study were 48 seven- year- old children in a S kindergarten located in the southern part of Seoul city. they were divided into an experiment group (n=24) and a control group(n=25). The study was conducted by this order : preliminary test, pre-test , experimental treatment, post-test.
The test tools used in pre-test and post-test are as follows. To test preschooler's mathematic ability, ‘Picture test of mathematical ability for preschoolers’ of Hae-ik, Hwang and Hye-jin, Choi. And to test preschooler's mathematic attitude, Eun-kyung, Yoon’s test tool was used that was revised version of Jung-sook, Hwang ‘s tool in 2005 which was revised version of Ward’s revised version of ‘Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children’(confidence level .85~.89) in 1996.
The experiment had been conducted 10 times for 10 weeks once a we ek from August 25th in 2014 to October 31st. It was running in unit activity time by big groups of children and sometimes each activity’s related activities were running in free choice activity time. To the experiment group, mathematical activity using storytelling was executed following these teaching process : Listening to Story – Understanding – Resolving – Doing Related Activities.
To the control group, same related activities as experiment group were conducted and it progressed following general unit activity’s introduction, deployment and closing process instead of storytelling mathematical activities (Listening to Story – Understanding – Resolving).
The mathematical story developed for this study includes 5 mathematical contents (Number and Calculation, Space and Figure, Measurement, Regularity, Data mining and Analysis) in Nuri Education Course which is National level education course. And Characters in ‘Poli and friends’ were chosen as main characters. Researcher composed story through document research and revised after getting advice from experts in both Early Childhood Education and Korean Language & Literature and conducting survey of fellow teachers. Additionally to judge if the test is appropriate, preliminary test was conducted to 25 five- year- old children in a kindergarten located in Incheon city.
After experiment, post-test was conducted and the effect of storytelling mathematical activity was reviewed. Test data of post-test was analyzed through SPSS 18.0 program.
The result of analysis was that storytelling mathematical activities were effective to experiment preschoolers in mathematic ability and mathematic attitude and compare to control group, there was statistical significance in mathematic ability and mathematic attitude.
The result of this study based on test result analysis is as follows.
First, storytelling mathematical activities affect all of preschooler’s subelement of mathematic ability, those are algebra, number and calculation. space and figure and measurement. This is because the process of storytelling makes preschooler’s engagement higher and accessing mathematical concept through concrete situation makes preschooler’s ability of understanding better so that it makes preschooler’s mathematic ability improved.
Second, storytelling mathematical activities affect all of preschooler’s subelement of mathematic attitude, those are passion to mathematics , confidence in mathematics, competency, recognition of other people’s evaluation and preference for mathematics. This is because preschooler’s characteristic which prefer for story itself is reflected on storytelling activity process so that it inspire preschooler’s intrinsic motivation to mathematical activities and it improved recognition that mathematical activities are pleasant.