Early Years Mathematics

The Early Years Mathematics (EYM) Working Group met in CERME for the first time in 2009. As such, it is a relatively “young” group, vibrant, and still growing. Perhaps the first question that must be dealt with at the onset is the necessity of this working group, or in other words, what makes early years mathematics special enough to warrant its own working group. Thus, this chapter begins with a discussion of what it means to develop young children’s mathematics knowledge and the importance of learning mathematics during the early years. The second part of this chapter deals with themes which have continuously interested researchers in this group, as well as ideas which have been developed over the last four CERME conferences. The third part of this chapter takes a look at connections between this working group and other CERME working groups. Finally, the last part reviews some of the challenges this group faces as well as future research directions.