The role of the teacher in the acquisition of counting skills.

The study is an action research project to improve the teaching of counting by focusing on three components. The first is the designing of materials and activities which may help children develop a greater understanding and confidence in their counting skills. The second is designing activities which will enable children to work as a class, as co-operative group members and as individuals within differing organisational frameworks. The third is finding ways of helping teachers effect the management of change within their classroom. The collaborative study is based upon non-participant, non-judgemental observation of five teachers in different schools. It is anaturalistic investigation. The results of the observations were usedto effect change within the classrooms through adaptation rather thanthrough imposition of solutions. The foci of the observations werethe role of the teacher and the range of counting experiences offered to six randomly chosen target children within each class. After nineobservations over two school terms the target children undertook seventests to assess their performance on various aspects of counting. Theresults showed that although there were significant differencesbetween the teachers there was no significant difference between thetest items. This is consistent with the view that counting skills arenot independent entities. Counting activities were designed by the researcher which would extend the counting experiences offered by each teacher. These formed part of a co-operative, school-based, teacher-researcher INSET programme.They involved the development of POSITIONAL concepts in counting, using numerals to represent number words, using ACTIVE and STATIC number lines and tracks, improving subitizing skills, using counting techniques in the solution of ACTIVE WORD PROBLEMS, using numbers as discrete labels and as points on a continuum. The design ensured children actively participated as co-operative class or group members and provided the opportunity for discussion between and with children.It also addressed the problem of matching activities to the teacher's organisational framework.