Preschool Children’s Learning of Counting and the Natural Numbers: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Learning to count discrete exact quantities is one of the first milestones in the development of children's mathematical knowledge. In recent years there has been an extensive debate about how this learning process occurs in preschool. The current research aims to identify the themes and general research questions developed in the last five years in terms of children’s counting and learning of the natural number system in preschoolers. To this end, a systematic review was conducted through ScienceDirect, EBSCO, Web of Science, SpringerLink, JSTOR and Sage databases. A total of 98 research articles were obtained and then analyzed by using cluster analysis and hierarchical maps using NVIVO 11.0. Four thematic nuclei were found (Ideas about the cognitive processes involved in the understanding of number, representation of numerical magnitudes, interventions to favor the development of mathematical skills and structural aspects of number), that show the current state of research on counting. The results of this study are important to define possible future research programs and can be used by teachers as input to enrich the learning environments of their classrooms