The Development of Informal and Formal Mathematical Thinking in Korean and U.S. Children

SONG, MYUNG-JA, and GINSBURG, HERBERT P. The Development of Informal and Formal Mathematical Thinking in Korean and U.S. Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 1286-1296. This study sought to establish, first, whether Korean children exhibit superior levels of performance in school mathematics to U.S. children; second, whether an early advantage in informal mathematical thinking contributes to the expected superiority; and, third, whether the superior achievement is qualitatively different from U.S. children's. A large number of Korean and U.S. children at age levels 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 were given the Test of Early Mathematical Ability (TEMA), which measures both informal and formal mathematical thinking. The results showed that at the ages of 7 and 8, Korean children do indeed exhibit superior performance in formal mathematics. Yet Korean preschool children's performance in informal mathematics is inferior to U.S. children's. Korean children do not begin with a head start in informal mathematical thinking. Various environmental factors, including a lack of intellectual stimulation from parents at home, might explain Korean preschool children's relatively poor performance in informal mathematical thinking. On entrance to school, Korean children soon overcome this initial disadvantage and excel in school arithmetic. Moreover, the results show that Korean children's performance is superior to that of U.S. children in both mechanical and conceptual areas. Korean children do not succeed only because they can learn in a rote fashion. We attribute Korean children's relative success and U.S. children's relative failure primarily to such environmental-cultural factors as classroom practices, teacher attitudes and skills, expectancies, and parental demands, values, and assistance.