My name: | Günter Schultheiß |
My address: | Am Geisrain 7 74847 Obrigheim Germany |
Year of my birth: | 1942 |
A few details about me and about what I'm doing: | I am working as a psychologist for schools. For
my first studies at a college of education from 1962 to 1964, I wrote a
thesis about the number concepts of children and juveniles. Unfortunately,
no copy of this study exists any more. These are the most important results
from my interviews with 40 people: 1) Nearly all of them could explain to me in detail how they imagine the system and arrangement of numbers, including the younger children in the first grades. 2) In these concepts, I could discern two fundamental types as they are used at school to describe the numbers: the linear structure and the rectangular arrangement (tables of hundreds and thousands). I had expected this. 3) Moreover, many very individual forms of representation were described to me. They have elements from different structures (for example the picture of a circle with the numbers on the circle line or in the circular area). Sometimes, however, the numbers were scattered in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional area without any perceptible order. 4) Often some numbers were especially highlighted - with a colour that belonged to them or with a certain form or size. |