ABSTRACT
Mathematics has been placed upon a pedestal as a realm of abstract intellectual thought. For many years philosophers and psychologists have suggested that mathematical knowledge was the result of the development of logic, and children could not learn it until they were capable of logical thought (Piaget 1965). Recently writers who are interested in the functions of different parts of the brain have paid attention to how mathematical knowledge begins. They have suggested that we are born with areas of the brain that specialise in the recognition of ‘numerosity’, i.e. the perception of quantities. Both Brian Butterworth (1999) and Stanislas Dehaene (1997) have written books that survey the beginnings of mathematical thinking, and the practices of counting, recording and calculation from pre history to modern times. Through these histories and by relating them to the observations and case studies of psychologists and neuro-scientists, they illustrate that at birth we possess a fundamental ‘sense of number’ that enables us to compare and select the larger of two groups. From these early abilities we quickly learn to have a sense of their order by size. Butterworth calls the brain circuitry that provides these processes ‘The Number Module’. He suggests that children use it to develop elementary ideas about quantities and numbers from information they gather through their physical senses and cultural experiences. This is the fundamental beginning of understanding numeracy; without it we would not be able to lead our practical daily lives, nor would mathematics ever fly to its abstract heights.
