How "Stagnation of Action" Are Occurred in Children's Mathematical Activities Using Objects at Grade1 of Elementary School

Abstract

The mathematical activities of early elementary school children were classified according to the five categories presented by Ginsburg et al. (1999). Activties that did not fit into any of these five categories were classified as “other”; in total, 51.8％ of the activities were classified as “other” (Ishii, 2013). In Study1, a matrix display of children’s activities organized according to these six categories (i.e., the original five categories and the new “other” category) showed that the “other” category was connected to the five categories in three main patterns. In Study 2, case studies were interpreted to examine the characteristics and functions of the “other” category in relation to the five categories. The results suggested that when certain restrictions are placed on them for activities using objects, and that “stagnation of action" (Sasaki et al., 1992) occurs in the preliminary stages of activities while children are placing and moving objects or between these actions.