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VISUALISATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL COMPUTATION

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VISUALISATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL COMPUTATION

Author: Janette Bobis

Publication Year: 1993

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report findings of a study intended to investigate the effect of
instructional activities designed to facilitate the development of visualisation strategies in young
children. Utilising this intuitive capacity can provide a basis for developing number relations and
devising strategies to learn basic facts. Given practice children can develop a reasonably large
collection of set dot patterns that they recognise without counting. These patterns begin to be
related mentally to one another as they enhance part-part-whole relations. Organising the dots
into recognisable subgroups and patterns facilitates the ability to recognise and give number
names to groupings, especially when the groupings are larger than five. ,
Instructional activities and materials that were used to facilitate the development of
visualisation strategies in two kindergarten classes over a one year period are described.
Students' verbal and pictorial responses are analysed and the implications for fostering the
development of basic facts in this manner are discussed.
The results indicated that, with practice, children can become capable of mentally combining
and separating patterns, thus able to instantly recognise the whole and its related parts - a very
. efficient strategy for aiding the recall o/basic addition and subtraction facts.

Type: Research Paper

JANETTE BOBIS
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