Abstract
Previous studies have indicated that various cognitive skills contribute to early number
concept development and that such pre-school skills predict mathematical competence
in Grade 1. In this study I argue that children’s number concept development at the
beginning of Grade 1 can partly be explained by their level of numerical competence
at the beginning of Grade R, as well as their language development, classroom
engagement and logical reasoning. Many Grade 1 children struggle to develop
mathematical competence, possibly because of the development of other cognitive
skills. I propose that early grade teachers should practice a pedagogy that has taken
cognisance of how cognitive skills develop and contribute to number concept
development. In this study I investigated possible concurrent and predictive
associations between Grade R1 and Grade 1 children’s number concept development
and contributing cognitive skills, namely their mathematics-specific vocabulary,
classroom engagement and logical reasoning.
In the analysis of literature I explain each variable, namely 1) number concept
development, 2) mathematics-specific vocabulary, 3) classroom engagement as a
manifestation of executive functions and 4) logical reasoning. I describe, from a
theoretical point of view, how each cognitive skill contributes to early number concept
development, reasoning that each skill is ‘input’ for learning number concepts and that
cognitive ‘input’ is, in turned, analyzed/filtered by an ‘input analyzer’. The literature
study (Chapter 2) is concluded with a discussion of how teachers can integrate
knowledge of contributing constructs of number concept development in their daily
teaching and assessment.
The study was designed to integrate quantitative- and qualitative data in such
a way that qualitative findings could be utilized to support and explain quantitative
findings. 59 Grade R Sesotho and isiZulu speaking children’s early number concept
development, mathematics-specific vocabulary, classroom engagement and logical
reasoning were assessed in the beginning of 2017. The same children’s early number
concept development was assessed in the beginning of 2018 when they were in Grade
1. The Grade 1 assessments were conducted in English (since English is their...
Ph.D. (Education)