Abstract
Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore preschool children's conceptual understanding of geometric shapes, the square in particular. There were a total of 115 children, 61 girls and 54 boys, from state preschool education programs, who participated in the study. The data were collected in two semesters through interviews in a one-on-one setting, where the researchers administered a paper-pencil test to the participants. The test included six questions. One question asked children to draw a square, one question asked to select the square among three other geometric shapes, three questions asked to differentiate the square among five to seven geometric shapes which were printed in rotated directions and in various fonts and sizes and one question asked to identify a picture of a square-like real life object among a selection of pictures. The findings showed that 65% of children were able to draw a square accurately, and 77% of children were able to identify a picture of a square-like object. Approximately 69% were able to differentiate three squares in different sizes among five geometric shapes, while 27% of the remaining were not able to identify the square in smaller sizes. Approximately 79% in one task and 56% in another task were unsuccessful in identifying squares in rotated directions. Moreover, there was no gender difference in the test between boys and girls. Findings were interpreted linking to Duval's theory, van Hiele's theory, Prototype theory and Simon's task design model.
Highlights
Research findings suggest that forming a conceptual understanding of geometric shapes begins in early years of life and that children's understanding becomes pretty stable at the age of 6 (GAGATSIS & PATRONIS, 1990)
This study investigated preschool children's conceptual understanding of one geometric shape, the square
Children completed six paper-pencil tasks, all printed on the same page, in various contexts where the numbers and types of geometric shapes, and whether all the shapes were printed on a line or in upper or lower positions relative to other shapes, and sizes and rotation of the squares were varied
Summary
Research findings suggest that forming a conceptual understanding of geometric shapes begins in early years of life and that children's understanding becomes pretty stable at the age of 6 (GAGATSIS & PATRONIS, 1990). Not until recently has geometry received significant attention (OBERDORF & TAYLOR-COX, 1999; CLEMENTS, 2004; CASEY et al, 2008) In their joint position statement, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC, 2002) identify five mathematics content areas for teachers to introduce: numbers and operations, geometry and spatial sense, measurement, patterns/algebraic thinking, and displaying and analyzing data. Similar mathematics expectations are set in the Turkish preschool education program It includes mathematics expectations in numbers and operations, patterns, measurement, geometry and spatial sense. Focusing on the expectations for geometric shapes, three goals were set: (1) name the geometric shapes, (2) describe the attributes of the geometric shapes, and (3) recognize the objects that are similar to geometric shapes (National Ministry of Education [Milli Egitim Bakanligi; MEB], 2013). We examined children in Turkish preschool programs in terms of their geometrical understanding of the square and whether and in what contexts they experience difficulties in recognizing and differentiating the square
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