The Beauty of Mathematics

Whenever talking about mathematics, people often link it to China. However, individual memories of mathematics in the context of group impressions are quite interesting: when the word 'mathematics' comes to your mind, what do you recall first?

Let's take a guess: 100 arithmetic problems? Is it the teacher with the glasses, who said seriously: "This is a key point, and it will be tested!"? Or is it yourself who was trying to figure out how to draw the auxiliary line? Or were you the one who looked at the trees out of the windows, fidgeted for a while and then continued to work on the problems?

At first glance, it seems that maths is often associated with being difficult or confusing. And these are not the feelings or scenarios we want our children to experience. 

When a child is born, the parts of the body such as skin, hands, feet, nose, ears and eyes, are the first tools used to get to know the world. As they grow, their cognitive development is further dependent on their own bodies, the languages around them and the social history. As Varela and other mathematicians have stated, children's bodies exist in an inseparable world. The acquisition of knowledge does not exist in isolation. Instead, it develops gradually in the interaction with the world, which is a process of mutual generation.

When children develop the mathematical skills in isolation from their experiences, they are likely to gain the feelings that mathematics is not fun, that it is too difficult, that it is not for them. If children are not supported over time, these feelings may become internalised and have a lasting negative impact on subsequent mathematical development and learning. 

Therefore, it is important to consider how to avoid such outcomes. Curiosity and interest are the keys to attract children to explore. The safer these keys are kept in the Early Years of education, the more chance the children will be able to explore areas of learning later on. The core of the development of the mathematics abilities in Early Years education is to link mathematics with real life. Children's cognition of mathematics is not abstract, but social and concrete, which is experienced and summarized from the real scenarios and difficulties.

A recent lesson about 'measurement' may give us some insight: based on the topic of what sort of transportation can be used, the pupils in EY3&4 initiated a discussion about distance in their project on 'aeroplanes/airports’. Questions such as "how we can know the distance?” and "how far/close it is?” naturally emerged from these discussions. 

Is it enough to have a simple discussion? How about putting it in the context of the life challenges? Then the teachers took the opportunity to ask: “What are the distances between different places on campus?” The pupils’ desire for exploration was instantly ignited: 

Each response from a child is based on their life experience and has its own validity. But how exactly do you confirm this?Question after question, arising from real-life scenarios, also continued to encourage children to move into deeper, more specific exploration. 

When trying to measure the distance from the classroom to the swimming pool, the pupils put forward the creative idea of using people to measure. Each pupil opened their arms and held hands to form a long, soft ruler to measure.

I wonder if you have noticed that when children are solving problems in real life, chain problems are also being generated naturally. With the appropriate support of adults around them, children are not deterred by these additional problems, while they are surer of their belief that "I am capable of solving problems independently". 

Of course, as children develop relevant mathematical cognitive abilities through practice, they also provide us with a more dimensional understanding of their existing abilities and the goals for the next stage. 

Here is some insight into appropriate support for children's development of mathematical skills: (The following four points are not only applicable to mathematics)