Connecting numbers to discrete quantification: A step in the child’s construction of integer concepts

The present study asks when young children understand that number words quantify over sets of discrete individuals. For this study, 2- to 4-year-old children were asked to extend the number word five or six either to a cup containing discrete objects (e.g., blocks) or to a cup containing a continuous substance (e.g., water). In Experiment 1, only children who knew the exact meanings of the words one, two and three extended higher number words (five or six) to sets of discrete objects. In Experiment 2, children who only knew the exact meaning of one extended higher number words to discrete objects under the right conditions (i.e., when the problem was first presented with the number words one and two). These results show that children have some understanding that number words pertain to discrete quantification from very early on, but that this knowledge becomes more robust as children learn the exact, cardinal meanings of individual number words

A picture of eight turtles: the child’s understanding of cardinality and numerosity

An essential part of understanding number words (e.g., eight) is understanding that all number words refer to the dimension of experience we call numerosity. Knowledge of this general principle may be separable from knowledge of individual number word meanings. That is, children may learn the meanings of at least a few individual number words before realizing that all number words refer to numerosity. Alternatively, knowledge of this general principle may form relatively early and proceed to guide and constrain the acquisition of individual number word meanings. The current article describes two experiments in which 116 children (2½- to 4-year-olds) were given a Word Extension task as well as a standard Give-N task. Results show that only children who understood the cardinality principle of counting successfully extended number words from one set to another based on numerosity—with evidence that a developing understanding of this concept emerges as children approach the cardinality principle induction. These findings support the view that children do not use a broad understanding of number words to initially connect number words to numerosity but rather make this connection around the time that they figure out the cardinality principle of counting

Znaleźć i zakupić czyli o zmieniających się tendencjach w pozyskiwaniu książek do zbiorów Biblioteki Uniwersytetu Śląskiego

The article analyses issues of purchasing Polish and foreign scientific literature done by the University of Silesia Library in the last 40 years. The authors tried to show the changing tendencies in getting the books from antiquarian bookshops, purchase of Polish and foreign publications

Rola szkoły w kształtowaniu zdrowego stylu życia uczniów na przykładzie opinii młodzieży licealnej

The current social problem is the increase of illnesses, so-called civilization diseases. Many of them start already at school age. Health education and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle become an important aim nowadays. The family and school are the leading role here. The goal of the study was to analyze the perception of the role of school in creating a healthy lifestyle among students from secondary school. The studies were carried out in Szczecin and Lublin. The research directed attention to understanding the concept and the students’ implementation of the rules related to it. It also seeks to know the school activities in this fi eld.Obtained results of research indicate that regardless of the city, students generally expressed similar opinions on the issues raised related to a healthy lifestyle and the activity of educational institutions in this area. It is a matter of concern that despite the knowledge and proper understanding of the term, high school students generally do not apply the principles of a healthy lifestyle or do it selectively. Also statements about participation in physical education lessons and extracurricular health and movement activities, which the youth avoids or does not take at all are not optimistic.There is a need for further work in the fi eld of education and shaping pro-health attitudes among adolescents. On the other hand, it is important and worth investigating the problem of students’ reluctance to use activating extra-curricular activities prepared by educational institutions.Aktualnym problemem społecznym jest wzrost zachorowań na tzw. choroby cywilizacyjne. Wiele z nich rozpoczyna się już w wieku szkolnym. Ważnym zadaniem staje się więc edukacja zdrowotna i promocja zdrowego stylu życia. Wiodącą rolę odgrywają tutaj rodzina i szkoła.Celem pracy była analiza postrzegania przez licealistów roli szkoły w kreowaniu zdrowego stylu życia. Studia przeprowadzono w Szczecinie i w Lublinie. W badaniach zwrócono uwagę na zrozumienie pojęcia oraz realizację przez uczniów związanych z nim zasad. Starano się także poznać działania szkoły w tym zakresie.Uzyskane wyniki badań wskazują, że uczniowie znają zasady zdrowego stylu życia ale nie stosują ich, lub robią to wybiórczo. Mając zapewnioną przez szkoły zróżnicowaną ofertę pozalekcyjnych zajęć aktywizujących na ogół z nich nie korzystają

Relationship between knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors and watching educational television materials : Małopolska CArdiovascular PReventive Intervention Study (M-CAPRI)

The current guidelines on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in clinical practice emphasizes the importance of education in the media for population‑based approaches. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between knowledge of CVD risk factors and watching educational television materials in the adult population. After 22 months of repeated broadcasting of educational television materials, which addressed problems related to CVD, a postal survey was conducted on a random sample of 5000 persons aged 18 years or older. The questionnaire included information on demographics, personal and family history of CVD, educational materials, and knowledge of the risk factors. A multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between the knowledge of each risk factor and watching educational materials. A total of 1129 questionnaires were sent back and used for the analysis. There were 208 participants (18%) who watched the educational materials. The median number of the risk factors listed was 4 (interquartile range, 2–5) for persons who watched the materials and 2 (interquartile range, 0–4) for those who did not watch them. After adjustment for age, sex, education, place of residence, and personal and family history of CVD, the participants who watched the educational materials were 2 to 5 times more likely to have knowledge on particular risk factors, with the exception of hypercholesterolemia for which the relationship was not significant. A strong, plausible relationship revealed by our study supports the idea that in the adult population, better knowledge of CVD risk factors was the effect of watching educational materials

Assessment of knowledge on cardiovascular disease risk factors by postal survey in residents of Małopolska Voivodeship : Małopolska CArdiovascular PReventive Intervention Study (M-CAPRI)

Introduction. Education is a key tool in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Education programmes require monitoring of their effectiveness. Objectives. 1) to introduce postal screening for the assessment of knowledge on CVD risk factors (RFs) for the Polish population, 2) to assess this knowledge in adult residents of Małopolska Voivodeship, and 3) to assess whether knowledge on RFs is related to age, gender, place of residence, level of education and family history of CVD. Materials and method. Anonymous questionnaires were posted to a random sample of 5,000 residents of Małopolska Voivodeship in Poland. Results were presented as proportions of participants who listed RFs correctly. A series of multiple logistic regression models was used to assess the associations of knowledge on RFs with the potential determinants. Results. 1,126 completed questionnaires were returned. Over 35% of respondents could not list a single RF and 14 % listed only 1–2 RFs. About 40% named 3–5 and only 12% listed 6 or more RFs. About a half of the respondents listed incorrectly from 1–8 characteristics as being associated with higher risk of CVD. In the multivariate analysis, knowledge on RFs was not significantly associated with age. Level of education was the strongest determinant of knowledge. Male rural and small town residents had less knowledge, whereas women with a family history of CVD had more knowledge on some CVD RFs. Conclusions. Using a postal questionnaire for the assessment of knowledge of CVD RFs in the population of Małopolska Voivodeship appeared to have serious limitations due to low participation in the study. Despite this, the results of the study indicate that knowledge on CVD RFs is insufficient. Female gender and higher education were related to more prevalent knowledge on RFs. Family history of CVD was related to better knowledge in women only. Male residents of rural areas and small towns had slightly less knowledge on CVD RFs

The real preschoolers of Orange County: Early number learning in a diverse group of children

The authors assessed a battery of number skills in a sample of over 500 preschoolers, including both monolingual and bilingual/multilingual learners from households at a range of socio-economic levels. Receptive vocabulary was measured in English for all children, and also in Spanish for those who spoke it. The first goal of the study was to describe entailment relations among numeracy skills by analyzing patterns of co-occurrence. Findings indicated that transitive and intransitive counting skills are jointly present when children show understanding of cardinality and that cardinality and knowledge of written number symbols are jointly present when children successfully use number lines. The study’s second goal was to describe relations between symbolic numeracy and language context (i.e., monolingual vs. bilingual contexts), separating these from well-documented socio-economic influences such as household income and parental education: Language context had only a modest effect on numeracy, with no differences detectable on most tasks. However, a difference did appear on the scaffolded number-line task, where bilingual learners performed slightly better than monolinguals. The third goal of the study was to find out whether symbolic number knowledge for one subset of children (Spanish/English bilingual learners from low-income households) differed when tested in their home language (Spanish) vs. their language of preschool instruction (English): Findings indicated that children performed as well or better in English than in Spanish for all measures, even when their receptive vocabulary scores in Spanish were higher than in English

Learning to represent exact numbers

This article focuses on how young children acquire concepts for exact, cardinal numbers (e.g., three, seven, two hundred, etc.). I believe that exact numbers are a conceptual structure that was invented by people, and that most children acquire gradually, over a period of months or years during early childhood. This article reviews studies that explore children’s number knowledge at various points during this acquisition process. Most of these studies were done in my own lab, and assume the theoretical framework proposed by Carey (2009). In this framework, the counting list (‘one,’ ‘two,’ ‘three,’ etc.) and the counting routine (i.e., reciting the list and pointing to objects, one at a time) form a placeholder structure. Over time, the placeholder structure is gradually filled in with meaning to become a conceptual structure that allows the child to represent exact numbers (e.g., There are 24 children in my class, so I need to bring 24 cupcakes for the party.) A number system is a socially shared, structured set of symbols that pose a learning challenge for children. But once children have acquired a number system, it allows them to represent information (i.e., large, exact cardinal values) that they had no way of representing before