%0 Journal Article %1 saxe1987spe %A Saxe, G.B. %A Guberman, S.R. %A Gearhart, M. %A Gelman, R. %A Massey, C.M. %A Rogoff, B. %C Chicago %D 1987 %I Univ. of Chicago Press %J Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development %K children early mathematics number %N 2 %T Social Processes in Early Number Development %U http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0037-976X(1987)52%3A2%3Ci%2Biii%3ASPIEND%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W %V 52 %X The present study is an investigation of the interplay between social and developmental processes in children's numerical understandings in working- and middle-class home settings. Methods included interviews with 78 middle- and working-class 2 1/2 - and 4 1/2 -year-olds to assess their numerical understandings, interviews with the mothers about their children's everyday number activities, and observational studies of the mother-and-child pairs in interaction during prototypical number activities. Our results provide evidence that the children in the study were regularly engaged with social activities involving number, though the nature of children's numerical understandings and their numerical environments differed in the following ways. (1) Younger children differed from older children in their numerical understandings across a variety of tasks that varied in their goal structure complexity: recitation of counting words, production of cardinal values for single arrays, numerical comparisons and reproductions, and arithmetic transformations. 4-year-olds from middle-class homes displayed greater competence on tasks with more complex numerical goals than did their working-class peers. (2) At home, variation in the complexity of children's everyday number activities paralleled our findings of age and social class differences in children's numerical understandings. (3) During mother-child teaching interactions, mothers adjusted the goal structure of a given activity to reflect their children's abilities to structure numerical goals, and children adjusted their goals to their mothers' efforts to organize the activity. In a minority of contexts, working-class mothers simplified the goal structure of the activity to a greater extent than did middle-class mothers. Overall, there were few differences between the middle- and working-class dyads in the complexity of numerical goals elaborated during interactions for children of equivalent age and ability. These results support a model in which children's numerical environments are understood to be negotiated in their everyday activities-a negotiation that leads children's achievements to be linked at once to their own understandings and to the sociocultural context of their development.

@article{saxe1987spe, abstract = {The present study is an investigation of the interplay between social and developmental processes in children's numerical understandings in working- and middle-class home settings. Methods included interviews with 78 middle- and working-class 2 1/2 - and 4 1/2 -year-olds to assess their numerical understandings, interviews with the mothers about their children's everyday number activities, and observational studies of the mother-and-child pairs in interaction during prototypical number activities. Our results provide evidence that the children in the study were regularly engaged with social activities involving number, though the nature of children's numerical understandings and their numerical environments differed in the following ways. (1) Younger children differed from older children in their numerical understandings across a variety of tasks that varied in their goal structure complexity: recitation of counting words, production of cardinal values for single arrays, numerical comparisons and reproductions, and arithmetic transformations. 4-year-olds from middle-class homes displayed greater competence on tasks with more complex numerical goals than did their working-class peers. (2) At home, variation in the complexity of children's everyday number activities paralleled our findings of age and social class differences in children's numerical understandings. (3) During mother-child teaching interactions, mothers adjusted the goal structure of a given activity to reflect their children's abilities to structure numerical goals, and children adjusted their goals to their mothers' efforts to organize the activity. In a minority of contexts, working-class mothers simplified the goal structure of the activity to a greater extent than did middle-class mothers. Overall, there were few differences between the middle- and working-class dyads in the complexity of numerical goals elaborated during interactions for children of equivalent age and ability. These results support a model in which children's numerical environments are understood to be negotiated in their everyday activities-a negotiation that leads children's achievements to be linked at once to their own understandings and to the sociocultural context of their development.}, added-at = {2007-05-16T07:43:18.000+0200}, address = {Chicago}, author = {Saxe, G.B. and Guberman, S.R. and Gearhart, M. and Gelman, R. and Massey, C.M. and Rogoff, B.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2aa8a337ee06c7731e8caa9b934045c97/rmosvold}, interhash = {88be3d708cd74ca6117434e27eef2f76}, intrahash = {aa8a337ee06c7731e8caa9b934045c97}, journal = {Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development}, keywords = {children early mathematics number}, number = 2, publisher = {Univ. of Chicago Press}, timestamp = {2007-05-16T07:43:18.000+0200}, title = {Social Processes in Early Number Development}, url = {http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0037-976X(1987)52%3A2%3Ci%2Biii%3ASPIEND%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W}, volume = 52, year = 1987 }