The effect of first school years on mathematical skill profiles

Nanu, Cristina; Laakkonen, Eero; Hannula-Sormunen, Minna M.

doi:10.14786/flr.v8i1.485

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Both Batchelor et al (2015) and Rathé et al (2018) found correlations close to zero when they took measures of children's SFON tendencies using these two approaches. Consistent with these results, Nanu et al (2020) performed an exploratory factor analysis of various SFON items, finding that picture task items loaded together onto one factor while imitation task items loaded together onto another. These findings are concerning for at least two reasons.…”

Section: The Path From Idea To Interventionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Focusing on spontaneous focusing

Inglis

2020

Mathematical Thinking and Learning

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By the time children start formal education there are already substantial individual differences in their mathematical skills (e.g., Ginsburg, Lee, & Boyd, 2008;Klibanoff et al., 2006). Because these individual differences are predictive of later school achievement (e.g., Jordan, Kaplan, Ramineni, & Locuniak, 2009), they merit serious research attention. In particular, what factors influence the level of mathematical skill a child arrives at school with? Of course, there are many plausible hypotheses: different levels of parental engagement, differences in children's domain general skills, differences in socioeconomic factors, and so on. In 2005 Hannula and Lehtinen put forward the exciting hypothesis that another possible source of individual differences in children's mathematical achievement is the extent to which they focus, unprovoked, on numerical aspects of their environment. suggested that children with a high Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON) tendency are more likely to, across a whole range of situations, notice the numerical aspects in their environments. This tendency gives them more practice at performing mathematical tasks, such as converting non-symbolic numerosity representations into symbolic numbers. For example, a child with a high SFON tendency might, while playing in the park, notice that there are four dogs and think to themselves "aha, there are four dogs!" In contrast, a child with a low SFON tendency might think "aha, those dogs are all brown!" Over time, this kind of self-initiated numerical

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Section: The Path From Idea To Interventionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Focusing on spontaneous focusing

Inglis

2020

Mathematical Thinking and Learning

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“…The five factors of vocabulary, arithmetic, memorial number, block diagram and number symbols were significantly higher than before the intervention. The difference between the two is very significant at P < 0.01 [10].…”

Section: Comparison Of Cognitive Function Test Scores Of Obese Children After Aerobic Exercise Interventionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Children’s cognitive function and mental health based on finite element nonlinear mathematical model

Luo

Fakieh

Hasan

2021

Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences

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This article uses a finite element nonlinear mathematical model to analyse the psychological conditions of children with certain physical defects. The thesis uses exercise and psychological intervention to intervene in children with material defects and scores the children’s mental state and cognitive status after the intervention. After our training and psychological intervention, the study found that the psychological evaluation scores of children with physical defects increased significantly. Before and after the intervention, there are apparent differences in children’s cognition in vocabulary and arithmetic. There is a nonlinear negative correlation between children’s cognitive abilities with physical defects and the scores of mental health status and neuropsychological evaluation. For this reason, the study concluded that movement and psychological intervention play a significant role in improving the cognitive function of children with physical defects.

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“…There are a variety of tasks designed to measure SFON, and studies show that the type of task can have an influence on measured SFON (Batchelor et al, 2015;Rathé et al, 2016;Nanu et al, 2020). According to Hannula (2005), the following criteria are important when assessing SFON.…”

Section: Measuring Sfonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling the Effects of SFON (Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity) and Symbolic Number Skills on the Mathematical Achievement of First Graders. A Longitudinal Study

2021

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Research has established that Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON) and symbolic number skills (e.g., counting out loud, counting objects, linking small magnitudes and numbers) are predictors of mathematical achievement in primary school. However, little is known about the relationship between SFON and symbolic number skills, or whether one of these factors is more influential on a child’s subsequent mathematical achievement. This study investigated the effect of SFON and symbolic number skills on mathematical achievement at the end of Grade 1 by controlling for first language, gender, working memory and nonverbal IQ. Participants were N = 1,279 first graders. SFON, symbolic number skills and control variables (first language, gender, working memory, and nonverbal IQ) were measured at the beginning of Grade 1. SFON was assessed with a verbally-based task. Data on mathematical achievement was collected at the end of Grade 1. Descriptive statistics demonstrated that the children’s SFON was relatively low at the beginning of Grade 1. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationship between SFON, symbolic number skills and mathematical achievement at the end of Grade 1. The results revealed a weakly significant correlation between SFON and symbolic number skills. SFON and symbolic number skills were significant predictors of mathematical achievement at the end of Grade 1. However, the effect of symbolic number skills on mathematical achievement was greater than the effect of SFON. It is therefore concluded that numerical skills are more important than SFON for predicting mathematical achievement over the course of first grade.

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The effect of first school years on mathematical skill profiles

Cited by 9 publications

References 46 publications

Focusing on spontaneous focusing

Focusing on spontaneous focusing

Children’s cognitive function and mental health based on finite element nonlinear mathematical model

Disentangling the Effects of SFON (Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity) and Symbolic Number Skills on the Mathematical Achievement of First Graders. A Longitudinal Study

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