Commentary: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Abstract

In recent years, the international research community has focused growing attention on the learning and teaching of for young children. Among other means, this increased attention is demonstrated by special issues devoted solely to teaching and learning during early childhood. For example, the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education published a special issue titledWindows to early childhood teacher education in an attempt to build a research-based body of knowledge pertaining to the education of early childhood teachers (Tsamir, Tirosh & Levenson, eds., 2011, p. 89). The Journal for Didactics of Mathematics published a special issue focusing specifically on German/Austrian research in early childhood mathematics (Peter-Koop & Scherer, eds., 2012, p. 177). One might wonder, then, about the added value offered by the current special issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics titled Alternative perspectives on learning in the early years. The uniqueness of this current special issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics stems from the fact that the five research papers it includes emerged from the same very large research center: the Individual Development and Adaptive Education research center established by the German Institute for International Educational Research at the Goethe University and the Sigmund Freud Institute. The focus of the project is on learning and the development of mathematical thinking in the early years. That is, two scientific disciplines that can be considered as relatively neighboring domains of study—educational psychology and education—joined together to conduct a deep cooperation within IDeA and some of the project’s insights may be found in this issue. In other words, this issue describes the results of research carried out under two research traditions and using the same participants. As mentioned in the introduction to this issue, the joint effort was found to be more complex than could have been expected at first (Krummheuer, this issue). The five research papers in this issue cover a range of topics, including mathematical creativity (Krummheuer et al.), gender differences (Lonnemann et al.), task design (Vogel), pedagogy (Brandt), and, finally, the development of mathematical thinking (Krummheuer). These papers present issues that are at the core of education in the early years and are based on a web of interconnections. Grevholm, Millman and Clarke (2008) claimed that what students learn is largely defined by the tasks in which they are engaged. This claim Educ Stud Math (2013) 84:273–277 DOI 10.1007/s10649-013-9508-0