When Is Young Children’s Play Mathematical? (original) (raw)

One of Bishop's 6 mathematical activities is play. It is deemed as mathematical because of its relationship to modelling, hypothetical thinking and abstraction, all of which can be seen in preschool children's play. In this paper, we explore the question about when young children's play can be labelled as mathematical. This exploration contrasts different definitions of play with what is known about mathematicians' academic play and how mathematics education researchers have described young children's play. From this theoretical discussion, we draw out the similarities between these types of play and discuss what makes play mathematical. We use these features to analyse a small episode of children playing to discuss if and how this could be considered to be mathematical. Many people have identified features belonging to play (see for example Huizinga, 1976; Bruner, 1975; Ugurel & Morali, 2010). Incorporating features of other researchers, Fromberg (1999) defined young children's play as: Symbolic, in that it represents reality with an "as if" or "what if" attitude Meaningful, in that it connects or relates experiences Active, in that children are doing things Pleasurable, even when children are engaged seriously in activity Voluntary and intrinsically motivated, whether the motive is curiosity, mastery, affiliation, or something else Rule-governed, whether implicitly or explicitly expressed Episodic, characterized by emerging and shifting goals that children develop spontaneously and flexibly. (p. 28) Features such as these can be seen in the Swedish preschool curriculum, in which play is considered the foundation for children's learning, including the learning of mathematics: Play is important for the child's development and learning. Conscious use of play to promote the development and learning of each individual child should always be present in preschool activities. Play and enjoyment in learning in all its various forms stimulate the imagination, insight, communication and the ability to think symbolically, as well as the ability to cooperate and solve problems.