Mathematical Elements of Elementary Education

Abstract

Abstract In recent decades, several Russian schools have been implementing a world-unique education program of mathematics for elementary schools. In it, the landscape of school arithmetic is radically expanded due to the basic objects of modern mathematics and computer science. These objects and their operations are visual, making them much more comprehensible than traditional arithmetic. The range of activities also expands due to, for example, the introduction of strategies for enumeration, game winning, and algorithms (also operating in a visual environment). At the same time, the student’s position changes: they independently discover and build mathematics and constantly solve personally new, but feasible tasks that are “not-known-how-to-solve.” The student’s resources are saved by using a computer to perform routine arithmetic operations that have already been discovered and understood. The implementation of this approach is discussed in detail and is illustrated by examples of actual tasks that are representative of the program under consideration and the whole approach.