A Study On The Development Of Mathematical Symbol Sense Of Primary School Students

Symbol sense is the core literacy of mathematics,and plays an important role in mathematics education.Scholars in the field of mathematics education have paid great attention to this,and their focus is on the connotation,constituent elements,development status,and training methods of symbol sense.Most studies focus on senior students,but less on primary school students.Then(1)how to measure the symbol sense of students in primary school(grades 1-3)? What are the characteristics of symbol sense of each grade?(2)From the first grade to the third grade,how did students develop symbol sense?(3)What is the relationship between students' symbol sense,general cognitive ability,and academic achievement in mathematics? How does it work?Based on the existing research,re-understand the connotation and constituent elements of symbol sense,and under the guidance of experts and front-line teachers,compile a symbol sense survey questionnaire that meets the physical and psychological characteristics of students in primary school(grades 1-3).In this study,51 first-year students in a school in Hangzhou were used as the research object.Through the follow-up survey to the third grade,the symbol sense questionnaire was used to collect data.Development trend of symbol sense.At the same time,with the aid of the general cognitive ability test questionnaire and mathematical achievements test questionnaire to collect data,we further explored the relationship between these two and symbol sense and the mode of action.The research results are as follows:(1)Students of all grades show significant differences in the four dimensions of symbol sense(symbol understanding,symbol representation,symbol operation,and symbol reasoning).Among them,the characteristics of symbol sense of the three grade students are as follows: the symbol understanding dimension is best grasped,followed by the symbol operation dimension,then the symbol reasoning dimension,and the symbol representation dimension is the worst.(2)From the perspective of symbol sense,although the students' symbol sense develops better as the grade increases,there is no significant difference between thethree grade students,that is,they are at the same level.From each dimension,only the symbol understanding dimension,the first,second and third grades are at different levels.In the symbol understanding dimension,the scores from the first to third grades show an upward trend;in the symbol representation dimension and symbol operation dimension,the scores from the first to third grades have no change;in the symbol reasoning dimension,the scores from the first to third grades slightly decrease.(3)There is a close relationship between symbol sense,general cognitive ability,and mathematical achievement of primary school students.According to the analysis of mediation effects,it is known that there are three significant paths:(1)Visuospatial Ability ? Symbol Sense ? Mathematical achievement(2)Reasoning Ability ? Symbol Sense ? Mathematical Achievement(3)Visuospatial Ability ? Reasoning Ability ? Symbol SenseIt can be seen that general cognitive abilities,especially visuospatial abilities and reasoning abilities,can affect mathematical achievements through symbol sense,and visuospatial abilities can affect symbol sense through reasoning abilities.Exploring the characteristics of the development of students' symbol sense in primary school(grades 1-3)will help schools effectively develop students' early mathematics education,and also help teachers to develop students' symbol sense and improve students' mathematical literacy.