Cultural Change and Mathematical Thought

S ummary . Sixty children of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin who had spent all their school lives in England, 60 who had arrived within the past three years and 60 British children were randomly selected in two age groups (10/11 years and 12/13 years) from the pupils of 22 schools in 11 towns in the industrial north‐west of England. Individual mathematical tasks called for ‘relational thinking’ rather than instrumental technique. No significant difference was found in the ability to abstract the nature of a pattern, to use this abstraction in the face of pattern disturbance or in the ability to generalise. The ability to employ hypotheses in the formulation of a number concept was significantly affected by age. It was only when overt verbal reasoning in English was required that length of exposure to host culture proved to be a significant factor. An interaction between length of stay and sex had a strong effect upon the quality of hypothesis orientated questioning in the English language. Asian girls who had completed a full British primary education showed marked superiority over their male counterparts at age 10/11 and marginal superiority at 12/13

Abstraction · Age groups · Developmental psychology · Epistemology · Significant difference · Sociology · Demography · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Mathematics · Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques · Psychology