Category: Counting

— Abstraction Principle, Counting —

Abstraction Principle – Everything and Anything Can be Counted

July 26, 2018

The abstraction principle is the last of Gelman and Gallistel’s Five Counting Principles. The one-to-one correspondence, stable-order, cardinal, and order-irrelevance principles have been addressed in previous posts. It is vital that children learn the other principles first, because as they get older, the abstract principle will be easier to understand. The abstraction principle states that… Read More Abstraction Principle – Everything and Anything Can be Counted

— Counting, Number Sense, Order Irrelevance Principle —

Order-Irrelevance Principle – The Order of the Count Doesn’t Matter

July 22, 2018

The order-irrelevance principle refers to the understanding that the order in which objects are counted is not important. It doesn’t matter whether the counting procedure is carried out from left to right, from right to left or from somewhere else, so long as every item in the collection is counted once and only once.  For example:… Read More Order-Irrelevance Principle – The Order of the Count Doesn’t Matter

— Cardinality, Counting, Number Sense —

Cardinality – Giving Meaning to Numbers

July 11, 2018

Cardinality is the ability to understand that the last number which was counted when counting a set of objects is a direct representation of the total in that group. Children will first learn to count by matching number words with objects   (1-to-1 correspondence) before they understand that the last number stated in a count indicates… Read More Cardinality – Giving Meaning to Numbers

— Counting, Number Sense, One-to-One Correspondence —

One-to-One Correspondence – A Counting Fundamental

June 9, 2018

  Children come to school with varied experiences related to counting. Even if young children can recite the number sequence it cannot be assumed that they can apply this knowledge to counting small sets of objects. Knowing the one-to-one correspondence principle is essential for organised, meaningful counting. This leads to an eventual ability to perform higher-level calculations… Read More One-to-One Correspondence – A Counting Fundamental

— Counting, Number Sense —

Number Sense – What is it? Why teach it?’

June 4, 2018

Number Sense is …. “… good intuition about numbers and their relationships. It develops gradually as a result of exploring numbers, visually them in a variety of contexts, and relating them in ways that are not limited by traditional algorithms.” (Howden, 1989) “Research indicates that early number Sense predicts school success more than other measures… Read More Number Sense – What is it? Why teach it?’