Journal of Early Childhood Care and Education Vol. 1, 2017, 1-14

An Investigation of Curriculum Relevancy with the

Cognitive Development (Number Conservation

Ability) During Early Childhood Education

Ayaz Ahmad*

Rabia Tabassum**

R. A. Farooq***

Abstract

The study was aimed at observing the number conservation ability of Early Childhood (Pre-primary children) to test the Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. The major objective of the study was to investigate the relevance of curriculum with cognitive development of Early Childhood (Pre-primary) children. An empirical research design was used. All the government and private Early Childhood (Pre-primary children) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were population of the study. 240 students of pre-primary children were taken as a sample of the study. For data collection, observation sheets were developed. Statistical technique of chi-square was applied to analyze the collected data. It was found that primary school children of age 3 to 5 were not number conservers at any case. Hence it was concluded that Early Childhood (Pre-primary children) were not found to be number conservers which reflects that the level of number concepts (numeracy) given in National curriculum (Mathematics) ECE 2002 (3 to 5 years) was higher than the cognitive level of Early Childhood (Pre-primary children) and hence it was not found to be suitable (with respect to number conservancy) due to the non-conservancy of the Early Childhood (Pre-primary children). It is recommended that the number concepts (numeracy) given in National Curriculum for Mathematics ECE 2002 (3 to 5 years) to be revised according to the cognitive level of Early Childhood (Pre-primary children). It should be reviewed on the basis of indigenous research studies. Keywords: early childhood curriculum, cognitive development,

conservation of number, pre-primary level.

*Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Northern University Nowshera KPK.

Email: ayaza10@gmail.com **

Professor & Head of Department of Education, Northern University Nowshera

KPK. Email: rabiatabassum227@gmail.com ***

Dean Faculty of Arts & amp; Social Sciences, Northern University Nowshera

KPK.Email:drfarooqch43@gmail.com

Ahmad, Tabassum & Farooq 2

Introduction The role of education in developing a nation, morally, culturally, politically, and economically can never be underestimate. Islam stressed much on every man and woman to gain knowledge from the birth to the end. The importance of education is emphasized by the first revelation of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) was “Read in the name of Allah, Who created you”. Through education we can understand and resolve our daily as well societal problems (Government. of Pakistan, 1998). For any country, primary education serves as a foundation stone of education which comprises Grades I-V. The curriculum includes the skills, to read write, arithmetic, and the main subjects includes, Social Studies, Islamiyat, General Science, English, Mathematics, Urdu, and Physical activities (Government. of Pakistan, 1998). Relevant curriculum is considered to be an important factor which can influence/change the performance of the students (Kiani et al., 2012). Throughout the world whenever curriculum is designed, or other learning activities are being planned, student’s opinion or voices cannot be ignored. For example, a curriculum should supplements the learners with respect to new challenges in his society, and the world. It should increase the involvement of students, to learn, and to be become well-set, physically, personally and socially in order to serve for their society and international community (Hussain et al., 2013). In this modern era, the voice of student is significantly considered for the advancement and improvement of learning process (Mitra, 2004). While in Pakistan, the process of curriculum development is as follows: First of all, the Curriculum Wing (CW) of Pakistan send a letter to all provincial centers of curriculum development and ask to make an outline or abstract for every course/subject for Grade I-XII. These centers then ask a panel of experts to make a blue print of the document for Grade I-XII. This blue print is then forwarded to Curriculum Wing for further process. The Curriculum Wing circulates these documents to their panel of experts and asked to give their statement of opinions, and then it is send to Curriculum Wing. The Curriculum Wing closely checks out the draft and endures its proposals to the Ministry of Education (MoE) for the approval. Secretary of Education accords the approval of the document and forwarded it to the provincial centers for arrangements of textbooks (Siddique & Sultan, 2008). National Bureau of Curriculum and Textbooks (NBCT), the second name of Curriculum Wing have the responsibility to tackle all matters related to textbooks, curriculum document, its approval, development and maintenance of standards from Grade I-XII. The provincial centers are the integral parts of the Curriculum Wing and they all ensure

An Investigation of Curriculum Relevancy with the Cognitive Development… 3

collaboration, and cooperation with National Bureau of Curriculum and Textbooks (Hussain et al., 2013). After the preparation and publishing the books by provincial textbook boards, they stock it and distribute it to the required destinations (Hussain et al., 2013). There are two types of Curricula used in Pakistan; one is ECE (Early Childhood Education) 2002 (3 to 5 years), which is for pre-primary classes that is play group/KG, Nursery, and Prep, and the other one is National Curriculum 2006 for Grade I-XII, which comprised Primary (Class I-V), Middle (Class VI-VIII), Secondary (Class IX-X), and Higher Secondary (Class XI-XII). Literature Review The curriculum of mathematics, especially the concept of number, is introduced mostly in the light of foreign studies results which are not appropriate for Pakistani children who fail in mathematics. Indigenous studies in a large number are required to find out the attainment age of number conservation so that the concept of number is introduced at appropriate age. Children can understand the concept of number only when they have the ability of number conservation. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relevance of curriculum with the cognitive development of children. It was Piaget, who for the first time introduced the four qualitatively different phases of mental development in individuals (Mooney, 2000). The first phase is called sensorimotor stage, which is started from birth to 2 years. The child at this stage can only use their senses to understand the world. Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development is named as pre-operational stage, which is from 2 to 6/7 years. Through language and mental images they can understand the world. Concrete operational is the third stage of mental development, started from 6/7 to 11 years. Logical thinking is the characteristic of this stage. The fourth and final stage of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is formal operational stage, which is started from 11/12 to 19 years. To reason scientifically and to think hypothetically is the quality of this stage (Sand well, 2004). Cognition means higher mental processes by which the child understands the world around him, processes information obtained from the environment, makes judgments about the information and communicates his knowledge to others. In this way, according to Piaget, children construct their own knowledge and behave like a scientist (Rahman, 2011). Children at the concrete operational stage are considered by Piaget as thinking logically they can perform physical actions mentally but they can think so only about real situations, not hypothetical situations. Important processes during this stage are:

Ahmad, Tabassum & Farooq 4

De-centering: At concrete operational stage, the child can think about multiple aspects of a task to resolve it.

Reversibility: It is the computation through which an individual is able

to sense that numbers or objects/coins can be changed and then returned to their original state.

Conservation: The children at concrete operational stage can understand that quantity, length, or numbers of items remain constant and unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of the objects or items.

Seriation: Organization of entities/objects in a series by with respect to their length, magnitude or any characteristics.

Classification: It is the ability of these children to categorize sets of object according to appearance, size or other characteristic (Seifert & Sutton, 2009).

At concrete operational stage, children can perform operations (mental actions) requiring logic such as conservation. Conservation ability is the most fundamental achievement of concrete operational stage. Conservation is the consummation that value/volume remains the same despite changes in their physical arrangement (Ojose, 2008). Conservation ability is probably the most famous of all logical

operations associated with the stage of concrete operations (Cook, 2005). The ability of conservation is the knowledge of a child at this stage that quantity is unrelated to the physical appearance of objects (Salkind, 2008). Conservation gives us the concept that definite physiological attributes of coins/ buttons remains same despite physical rearrangements. Concrete operational children have the ability to deal

with conservation tasks (Cook, 2005). Consequently, children remain at the third phase which is named as concrete operational stage of mental development during most of elementary school. Elementary school students begin to use adult form of logic, but they can apply their new-found logic only to concrete situations. In other words, they can think logically about things they can

experience in real situation but not about the hypothetical situations. Children at the concrete operation stage look at the world and interpret situations concretely and literally, not abstractly (Lutz & Huitt, 2004). According to the literature and Piaget’s research, children have acquired liquid conservation ability by the age of eight years. Conservation of number, length, and liquid is developed in most children

at the age group of 6 to 7 (Haroon, 2005). Systematic, quantitative and logical thinking is the characteristic of an individual at this stage.

An Investigation of Curriculum Relevancy with the Cognitive Development… 5

Types of Conservation There are seven major types of conservation: 1. Number 2. Length 3. Area 4. Mass 5. Volume 6. Liquid 7. Weight Conservation of Number In the number conservation task which is Piaget’s most famous task is, two identical; rows of buttons/coins are presented in front of an individual. Then he is inquire/quest to say whether the two rows have an equal number of buttons/coins, and he/she usually says yes. Then one row of objects is spread out or congested before the eyes of child and the child is then asked if one row has more objects or not, those individuals, whose age group is above 6 to 7 years will answer in ‘no’ and can their response by saying one row has more or other row has less number of objects while older children usually answer yes and justify their answer appropriately (Haroon, 2005; Salkind, 2008). According to Piaget, children of age group 6 to 7, acquire the number conservation ability. In the first stage (birth to 2 years), the children were unable to create exact correspondence or set equivalence. These children are still formulating basic numerical concepts. In the second stage (2 to 7 years), the children formed equal sets but when the appearance of one line was changed they believed that one element of the set had more. In the third stage (7 to 11 years), the children, despite the change in visual appearance, recognized that quantity had not changed, and were able to provide a justification for their evaluation. These children are said to have developed conservation of number (Crawford, 2008). Number Conservation Ability Conservation ability is probably the most famous of all logical operations associated with the stage of concrete operations (Cook, 2005). The ability of conservation is the knowledge of a child at this stage that quantity is unrelated to the physical appearance of objects (Salkind, 2008). Conservation gives us the concept that definite physiological attributes of coins/ buttons remains same despite physical rearrangements. Concrete operational children have the ability to deal with conservation tasks (Cook, 2005).

Ahmad, Tabassum & Farooq 6

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Objective of the Study The major objective of the study was to investigate the relevance of curriculum with cognitive development (NumberConservation Ability) during Early Childhood Education Delimitation of the Study The study was delimited to the children of age group 3 to 5 only; that is 3 to 5 years comprised Early Childhood Education (Pre-primary children). As the study was conducted to test the Piaget’s theory with respect to number conservation ability, therefore the researcher selected only number concepts (numeracy) from mathematics curriculum for Early Childhood Education.

Methodology

Research Design

An empirical research design was used to conduct the study.

Figure11: Empirical research design

Hypotheses

Experiment (testing)

Observation Deduction

Induction

An Investigation of Curriculum Relevancy with the Cognitive Development… 7

Population

All the 764,743 including boys 388,421 and girls 376,322 early

childhood (pre-primary) children of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were constitute

the population of the study (Govt. of Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa, 2014).

Sample

By using convenient sampling method, 240 were selected as a sample of the study. The sample students were observed to test the ability of number conservation according to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. The names of schools from which sample was selected are: Sampled Schools (Urban Government) in District Swabi

i. Government Primary School Mathani Changan Tordher ii. Government Girls Primary School Saifur Banda Tordher Sampled Schools (Urban Private) in District Swabi

i. The Iqra Public School and College Tordher ( for Boys) ii. The Iqra Public School and College Tordher (for Gilrs) Sampled Schools (Rural Government) in District Swabi

i. Government Primary School No.1 Jalsai ii. Government Girls Primary School No. 4 Jalsai Sampled Schools (Urban Private) in District Swabi

i. Star Public School Jalsai (for Boys) ii. Star Public School Jalsai (for Girls)

Research Instrument

Twenty medium size, red colored plastic buttons were used for the

experiment.

Research Questions

As the study was aimed to investigate Piaget’s claim of conservation

of number and the results of subsequent research in Pakistani context, the

Ahmad, Tabassum & Farooq 8

following research questions will be addressed.

Piaget claims: Children below 6 to 7 years are non-conservers of

number (Berk, 2005; Borst, 2012; Crawford, 2008;

Muller, 2005; Neys et al., 2014; Richardson, 2006).

Research question: Do Pakistani children keep the same characteristic?

Procedure of the Study

The experiment was based on Piaget’s task of conservation of

number. The researcher conducted the experiment in following way:

Task 1 The subject children were presented two rows of equal length containing the same number of buttons (placed on a table, as shown below). The subject children were asked.

1. Whether the two rows are identical? (Neys et al., 2014). 2. If the answer is ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, then why/how much? (Neys et al., 2014). ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Task 2

One of the rows was spread apart so that one is longer than the other (as

shown below) and the subject children were asked.

1. Now, whether the two rows are identical? (Neys et al., 2014).

2. If the answer is ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, then why/how much now? (Neys et

al., 2014).

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

The experiment was conducted in a quiet room and the subject

children were called upon one by one.

Scoring Data

The responses obtained from the subjects were scored by assigning ‘1’ mark to each correct answer and ‘0’ mark to the wrong answer. The total conserver score of the subject on two tasks thus ranged between zero and four.

An Investigation of Curriculum Relevancy with the Cognitive Development… 9

Thus, the children who answered all questions correctly were

assigned ‘4’ marks and were classified as number conservers and those

who obtained less than two marks were classified as non-conservers,

while those who obtained ‘2’ or ‘3’ marks were considered as

transitional. The number of children in each category, that is, at each age

level was converted into percentages and the results were presented in

the form of tables.

Collection of Data

Data were collected through primary data and secondary data.

Primary data were collected through an observation sheet. Secondary

data was the curricula of Early Childhood Education (Mathematics) 2002

(3 to 5 years). The numeracy (number concepts) of mathematics

curriculum was analyzed with respect to number conservation ability.

Analysis of Data

The collected data were analyzed through statistical tool, such as chi-

square in order find out the significant difference between the groups

(private and government children). The 50 percent criteria were adopted

in order to determine the attainment age of number conservation

(Haroon, 2005).

Findings

It is clear from the table 01 that the chi-square value (189.06) of

early childhood (pre-primary) children (3 to 5 years) was significant at α

= 0.05. It shows that there was significant difference in the frequency

early childhood (pre-primary) number conservers. The percentage values

(0, 7.5, 28.75) of early childhood (pre-primary) children (3 to 5 years)

was less than 50 percent, it reveals that the early childhood (pre-primary)

children of age group 3 to 5 were found to be not number conservers.

Ahmad, Tabassum & Farooq 10

Table 1

Significance of Difference in the Frequency of Number Conservers

Among 3 to 5 Years Old Early Childhood (pre-primary) Children

Age group

N

3

Year

4

year

5

Year Total ᵡ2

Conservers 240

0 6 23 29 2 189.06

Percentage 0 7.5 28.75 36.25

Table Value of ᵡ2=11.071

Figure 2: Frequency of number conservers of age group 3 to 5 years old

early childhood pre-primary children

Discussion

The present research was conducted to measure the number

conservation ability among Early Childhood (pre-primary) children (3 to

5 years) of Pakistan according to Piaget’s theory of cognitive

development. It was found that Early Childhood (pre-primary) children

of age 3 to 5 were not number conserver at any case. This result is same

as the result of researches conducted by Agger (2007), and Muller (2005)

they tested 3 to 5 years old children on Piaget’s number conservation

task. They explored that the preoperational children of age group 3 and 5

do not have the number conservancy at any way. A study conducted by

0

6

23

0

5

10

15

20

25

3 years 4 years 5 years

An Investigation of Curriculum Relevancy with the Cognitive Development… 11

Neys et al., (2014) also concluded that the individuals of the age group 2

to 6/7 do not have the number conservancy. After investigating 45

kindergarten boys and 41 kindergarten girls on Piaget’s number

conservation task by Miller and Hiller (1976), they concluded that 5

years old children are non-conservers. So the Piaget claims (Children

below 6 to 7 years are non-conservers of number) is proved.

Hence, it was concluded that Early Childhood (Pre-primary children)

were not found to be number conservers which reflects that the level of

number concepts (numeracy) given in National curriculum

(Mathematics) ECE 2002 (3 to 5 years) was higher than the cognitive

level of Early Childhood (Pre-primary children) and hence it was not

found to be suitable (with respect to numeracy/number concepts) due to

the non-conservancy of the Early Childhood (Pre-primary) children.

Conclusion

The present research was conducted to measure the number

conservation ability among Early Childhood (pre-primary) children (3 to

5 years) of Pakistan according to Piaget’s theory of cognitive

development. It was found that Early Childhood (pre-primary) children

of age 3 to 5 were not number conserver at any case.Hence, it was

concluded that Early Childhood (Pre-primary) children were not found to

be number conservers which reflects that the level of number concepts

(numeracy) given in National curriculum (Mathematics) ECE 2002 (3 to

5 years) was higher than the cognitive level of Early Childhood (Pre-

primary children) and hence it was not found to be suitable (with respect

to numeracy/number concepts) due to the non-conservancy of the Early

Childhood (Pre-primary) children.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the number concepts (numeracy) given in

National Curriculum for Mathematics ECE 2002 (3 to 5 years) to be

revised according to the cognitive level of Early Childhood (Pre-primary

children). It should be reviewed on the basis of indigenous research

studies.

Ahmad, Tabassum & Farooq 12

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Citation of this Article: Ahmad, A., Tabassum, R., & Farooq, R.A. (2017). An investigation of

curriculum relevancy with the cognitive development (number

conservation ability) during early childhood education. Journal of Early

Childhood Care and Education, 1, 1-14.