TITLE:
Mathematics in Preschool and Problem Solving: Visualizing Abstraction of Balance
AUTHORS:
Mirella Forsberg Ahlcrona, Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson
KEYWORDS:
Creative Teaching, Balance, Problem Solving, Mathematics, Variation
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.5 No.6,
April
25,
2014
ABSTRACT: This article
describes how children learn to distinguish variations of the concept balance
when they have different kinds of experiences of feeling, making and creating
balance. The focus of the study is how children in preschool develop the
ability to think logically and creative by exploring balance as phenomena in
everyday life. Empirical data were collected in two preschool groups with
children that were 3 - 5 years old. By following the process the results show
that children and teachers increased their awareness and developed an
understanding of balance, its meaning and significance, through creative
teaching—by playing different games, drawing, constructing and building. The
results also show that creative framework in performing activities seems to
enrich the collective learning process as
well as using mathematical concepts to describe the abstraction of balance.