The laboratory of mathematics in primary school: a practical approach for understanding and learning

Abstract

The skills of mathematical nature are currently necessary and fundamental to properly understand and adequately use the increasing amount of scientific and technological knowledge of everyday life. In this work we introduce interesting results of current research about the importance of the connection between the natural intuitive mathematics and the "scholastic mathematics", putting it on a motivating and meaningful basis for the students already by the first year of primary school. To do this, a didactics of laboratory is useful, i.e. a practical approach for better understanding and using the formal approach. Through the mathematics laboratory it is possible to create activities, which support the transition from intuitive notions and early elementary operational levels to more advanced forms of thought. The laboratory of mathematics is understood both as physical place and as a moment in which the child is active, discusses and argues their own choices, does experimentation and learns how to collect data and to compare them with the models. In conclusion some examples of mathematics laboratory activities for the first primary class are also given.