A Study On The Self-perceived Development Of Children Aged 4-6 In The Field Of Mathematics

Self-perceptions of competence are people's self-evaluative judgments about their ability to complete specific tasks(Harter,1985),they can affect children's competence and actual performance.In the past,researchers focused on cognition,physical and social fields to explore school-age children and teenagers' self-perceptions,rarely involving early mathematics field.The purpose of this study was to explore 4-6 years old children's self-perceptions in mathematics field and their influencing factors.Ninety 4-6 years old children in two public kindergartens in Shanghai participated in this study.Bandura self-efficacy classic model adapted by predecessors was selected.This research used experimentation and cases to investigate children's self-perceptions of competence in the field of mathematics and analyzed factors that affect children's judgment.The results showed that:1.4-6 years old children tend to overestimate their competence in mathematics.2.There are no sex differences in 4-6 years old children's self-perceptions in mathematics.3.4-6 years old children tend to overestimate their competence in each task.In conservation and pattern tasks,children's competence scores were lower than equally dividing,and their self-perceptions were higher.Children tend to overestimate more in conservation and pattern tasks.4.4-6 years old children's self-perceptions of competence decrease with the increase of difficulty.Children tend to overestimate more in hard task.5.4-6 years old children's judgment is affected by many factors.In objective factors,children's judgment is affected by difficulty,task type,previous experience,adults and peers;in subjective factors,children's judgment is affected by cognitive development.In conclusion,4-6 years old children tend to overestimate their mathematical competence,and there are no sex differences in children's self-perceptions in mathematics.4-6 years old children's ability judgment is affected by subjective and objective factors.Compared with the previous research,this study focused on the field of mathematics,specifically discussed the development of children's self-perceptions of competence.The results provided new figures,and put forward feasible education suggestions.