engleski

Mathematical picturebooks for young children

The authors presented results of the interdisciplinary project 'The Mathematical Picturebook – Artistic and Literary Activities as an Encouragement to Young Learners' (MASLIK), conducted at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, Croatia. The project combined science and art in an educational context. It was focused on young learners and their mathematical competences. Its main goal was twofold. Firstly, the project aimed at establishing conceptual foundations for designing materials in the form of picturebooks and short animated films that would facilitate the process of acquiring mathematical concepts by young children. Secondly, materials that combine mathematical ideas and aesthetic experiences were produced by student teachers, guided by the authors, members of an interdisciplinary team of experts, with the aim to help students acquire knowledge and skills that would enable them to help young learners develop their creative potentials in both areas. The final stage is piloting. The project outcomes contradict the common belief that children find such mathematical concepts as numbers or geometric shapes too difficult because of their abstract nature. The idea that mathematical concepts are important not only for the intellectual development of a child, but for the development of the child’s personality as a whole, was at the heart of this venture. Picturebooks and animated films offer an approach that is both appropriate and acceptable to young learners. The picturebook is a multimodal and playful form, interactive by definition. One of its defining features is the specific process of reading, which involves a demand for re-reading. This is sometimes described as transmediation, in semiotic terms. Re-reading contributes to a better understanding of content, and thus re-reading math picturebooks contributes to acquiring mathematical concepts in young children. The themes of presented examples, two picturebooks and two animated films, created by teacher students, cover the notions of circle and disc and basic counting skills. The picturebook about numbers is based on soft sculpture, involving sewing and embroidery. The other one and both films, explore the relationship of the circle and the disc. Picturebooks and films instigate and deepen the child’s sensibility for aesthetic experiences and improve the child’s general appreciation of artistic creations. They stimulate children to think creatively and improve their observation and reflection skills. Besides, designing picturebooks and films with mathematical content brings mathematics closer to children.

mathematical concepts; picturebook; animated film; education; young children

Projekt MASLIK izvodi se uz potporu Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. Rad su, u ime svih autora, na konferenciji izložile tri članice projektnoga tima, Antonija Balić Šimrak, Smiljana Narančić Kovač i Kristina Horvat Blažinović.