An Integrated (vs a Fragmented) Approach to Mathematical Knowledge in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Integration, as an approach to meaningful, engaged, deep learning, is often linked with a practice of blurring the boundaries between disciplines. In this chapter, we argue that integration can be an approach of blurring boundaries of any kind. Under this perspective, we elaborate on the idea that an integrated approach can be applied within a discipline (e.g. mathematics) when other boundaries are blurred. In an effort to investigate how such an approach might look like, we provide a story of a class of 25 preschool children (4 to 6-year-olds) engaged in an intervention (duration of 2 months) relating to bowling which gradually led through a process of Modelling-based Learning (MbL) to a conceptual understanding of the sequence of triangular numbers. The story arose from a Design-based Research (DbR) aiming to design and develop a mathematics and science curriculum for early childhood educationEarly Childhood Education in Cyprus. The chapter initially provides examples of fragmented practices through data from the educators prior to their participation in the DbR. The comparison between these data and the data from the “bowling story” exhibit the distance between a fragmented approach and meaningful, engaged, deep learning as opposed to an integrated approach with a sound constructivist, inquiry-based epistemological foundation.