PRESCHOOL CHILDREN’S REPRESENTATION OF DIVISION WORD PROBLEMS THROUGH DRAWINGS

Research has shown that preschool children can make sense of multiplication and division situations. However, researchers suggest that sharing is the most intuitive way for young children to solve division problems using manipulatives. Starting from the hypothesis that drawing might be another means by which young children can represent division situations, we conducted a task-based interview with a small group of Australian and Italian 6-year-olds about measurement and partitive division situations. Results indicate that the children could interpret both types of division and their drawings and gestures captured the strategies used. We contend that children’s drawings capture their thinking more effectively than their use of manipulatives.