Mathematical argumentation of three-year-old children on a classroom experience based on two STEAM domains
María Salgado 1 , Ainhoa Berciano 2 , Beatriz Abad-Villaverde 3 *
More Detail
1 University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, SPAIN2 University of the Basque Country, Leioa, SPAIN3 Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Santo Domingo, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC* Corresponding Author

Abstract

In the last decades, the importance of argumentation as a human competence in general and its close relationship with mathematical comprehension in particular has been highlighted. Thus, in this paper we focus our interest on analyzing the argumentation skills shown by three-year-old children in a STEAM classroom experience. For this purpose, a qualitative study was carried out. For data collection, a STEAM task has been designed in which mathematics and science are worked together from the study of the physical properties of water. Specifically, what color and taste of water has by means of two experiments and, subsequently, photos and video-recordings have been collected during the implementation carried out in a classroom with 20 children of three-year-old. All data collect have subsequently been transcribed and categorized. The results indicate that the children, during the experiments done, mainly use arguments based on mathematical language, numerical figures, or make use of words or spelling, although with considerable imprecision in the type of language used. In addition, the experiments carried out have allowed a high percentage of children to change their previous ideas and have a more comprehensive approach to the concepts introduced, highlighting the importance of working on argumentation in early childhood education through contexts, in this case STEAM, which encourage reasoning and proof.

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 20, Issue 2, February 2024, Article No: em2402

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14187

Publication date: 09 Feb 2024

Article Views: 875

Article Downloads: 628

Open Access References How to cite this article