ERIC Number: EJ1110596
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0159-6306
EISSN: N/A
Number Sense and the Calculating Child: Measure, Multiplicity and Mathematical Monsters
de Freitas, Elizabeth
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, v37 n5 p650-661 2016
Children and animals of all kinds are said to develop some degree of number sense. The search for "number neurons" and neural correlates of computational thinking aims to identify biological primitives to explain the emergence of number sense. This work typically looks for the sources of number sense in organisms, but one might extend this search and study the possibility of a "calculating matter" more generally. Such a speculative project explores the implications of the non-human turn within the posthumanities. In this paper, I draw primarily on the work of Vicky Kirby and Gilles Deleuze in order to focus on becoming-monster through calculation. I show how calculation, as a machinic and empirical act that both serves and troubles images of mathematical truth, has always played a unique role in the production of mathematical monsters. I then discuss calculating children who participate in abacus clubs and annual abacus competitions, calculating at inhuman rates with imaginary abacuses. I argue that a new materialist philosophy of immanence demands a radically new approach to number sense.
Descriptors: Numbers, Numeracy, Computation, Mathematics, Children, Manipulative Materials, Mathematical Concepts, Competition
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A