| This study explores how Davydov's elementary school mathematics curriculum was taught to US children in an individual school setting, focusing on the difficulties the children experienced and pedagogical measures taken to address them. As the theoretical framework, Vygotskian cultural-historical theory, Davydov's theoretical learning theory, and how their theories are interrelated and embodied in the design of this particular mathematics curriculum were examined.; Seven children in an American independent school participated in this research study. The fieldwork for this research was conducted during the period from Fall 1999 to Spring 2002, and covered the first three years of Davydov's program, which constitutes the elementary mathematics in Russia.; The research method takes a form of action research, focusing on the understanding processes of learning and teaching in the situation where the new material and new practice were used. I situated myself as a teacher, not an outside researcher, and examined our everyday teaching-learning process based on the definition of knowledge as a collective situational production of teacher and children. The main data sources in this study are field notes reporting on daily class activities and the children's work.; The research data were categorized into 15 topics. It is notable that most of the difficulties experienced by the children appeared at the initial stage of learning new topics or concepts. The children spent a long time on discussions and arguments to resolve their initial difficulties in understanding mathematical concepts. However, after they got through the resolving process and internalized the meaning of mathematical concepts, the rest of the problems in a topic were easy for the children. When the difficulties were caused by individuals' lack of basic learning skills and efforts, the duration of difficulties lasted longer.; The last chapter examines the contributing factors of Davydov's curriculum to the strategies of dealing with the children's difficulties and the directions for future research. |
