Developing Preschoolers’ Combinatorial Thinking with the Help of ICT: The Case of Arrangements

Abstract

In recent years, the learning and teaching of combinatorics presents particular educational research interest from the primary up to higher education levels. The combinatorial problems constitute a valuable opportunity for mathematical exploration, as combinatorics is a branch of mathematics with many applications, providing a complex network of connections with many areas of mathematics. The studies which examine the development of combinatorial thinking to preschoolers are limited. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a microworld in the development of combinatorial thinking of kindergarten children. Specifically, the research concerns the production of arrangements two by two, three by two and four by two, from sets of discrete objects in the context of a digital microworld and embedded in a game and narrative context. The research findings show that the designed microworld comprises a developmentally appropriate learning environment for the meaningful learning and the development of combinatorial thinking by the preschoolers. The participants’ interaction with the microworld showed that the children can understand the concept of arrangement in a simulated concrete situation and that they can produce possible arrangements with various ability levels. A strong relation was revealed between the ability level of arrangements production of the children and their ability to pay attention to and interpret the feedback available in the microworld.