Developing mental number line games to improve young children’s number knowledge and basic arithmetic skills

Abstract

The learning of number knowledge in childhood may directly influence children’s mathematics learning ability in subsequent periods. Previous studies also show that the difficulties in mathematics learning faced by schoolchildren are mainly rooted in the lack of number knowledge in early childhood. Focusing on the development of numerical knowledge and basic arithmetic skills in early childhood, this study designed a linear number line game based on the theory of the mental number line. Accordingly, this study examined the effectiveness of the linear number line game in children’s learning of number concepts and arithmetic skills and compared the effectiveness of the linear number line game with that of two other games (a nonlinear number line game and a non-number-line game). This study adopted a quasi-experimental research design. A total of 140 young children from remote areas of eastern Taiwan participated and were divided into three experimental groups and one control group, and a pretest–posttest experiment was conducted. The experimental results showed that the linear number line game could help children to acquire numerical knowledge effectively, especially in number line estimation compared with other experimental groups. In terms of the learning effectiveness of basic arithmetic skills (e.g., addition, subtraction), the two number line games (linear and nonlinear number line games) are significantly superior to the non-number-line game (traditional number decomposition and synthesis game). This study recommends that preschool teachers use linear number line games to improve children’s numerical knowledge and arithmetic skills.