Conceptual Knowledge is the internal understanding constructed by an individual through reflection on activities and recognition of patterns, relationships, regularities, and irregularities. It is vital for developing numeracy in the foundation phase.
Examples:
- Recognizing Patterns: Set up activities with numbers, shapes, or objects where children have to recognize a pattern and predict what comes next.
- Understanding Relationships: Use number bonds to teach children how numbers relate to each other. For example, showing that 6 can be made by combining 1 and 5, 2 and 4, or 3 and 3.
- Regularities and Irregularities: Introduce activities where children identify which item doesn’t belong in a sequence or set, and explain why.
Teachers play a crucial role in creating activities that reveal the underlying structures of numbers, operations, and mathematical relationships. Encouraging reflection and discussion among children is important for the development of conceptual knowledge.