Et innblikk i barns tallforståelse på slutten av barnehageårene gjennom digitale oppgaver

The study investigates the numeracy of five-year-olds in Norwegian kindergartens using digital tasks. The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of the variation in children’s numeracy towards the end of kindergarten years. The research question is: How does our digital assessment tool for early numeracy help shed light on the numeracy skills of five-year-olds?

The study revealed considerable variation in the numeracy skills among children who were about to start school. Overall, however, the group had more advanced numeracy skills than expected based on previous research and the framework plan for kindergartens. The study emphasises the importance of adapting educational activities to children’s level of knowledge, thus raising the quality of the mathematical processes taking place in kindergarten.

The researchers used a specially developed digital tool with 71 numeracy tasks designed to map numeracy skills. The tasks were accessible via a web application that did not require reading or writing skills, or adult support to be answered. The children in five randomly chosen kindergartens in Trøndelag in Norway were asked to participate. The children were given a tablet on which they were to answer the same tasks, and they received the same instructions. Some worked in groups of 2 to 4, while others performed the tasks individually. A researcher observed and took notes during the entire data collection. The sample consisted of 77 five- and six-year-olds with varied linguistic and socioeconomic backgrounds. 

Saksvik-Raanes, G., Solstad, T. & Grimeland, Y. (2023). Et innblikk i barns tallforståelse på slutten av barnehageårene gjennom digitale oppgaver. Nordisk barnehageforskning, 20(2), 5–28.