What is to be learnt? Critical aspects of elementary arithmetic skills.

The study presents a way of describing variation in young children's learning of elementary arithmetic within the numerical range 1–10. The aim of the study is to look more closely at children's learning process by means of discerning particular aspects of numbers.

The researchers' conclusion is that the study's way of describing arithmetic skills, in terms of discerning aspects of numbers, makes it possible to explain why children cannot use certain strategies and how they learn to solve tasks they previously could not solve.

The analysis is based on data from the FASETT research project. In this research project, the researchers conducted task-based interviews on three occasions (interview two with an eight-month delay and interview 3 one year after the second interview) with 103 children aged four to seven years old from kindergartens in Sweden.

Björklund, C., Marton, F., & Kullberg, A. (2021). “What is to be learnt? Critical aspects of elementary arithmetic skills”. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 107:261-284.