Numbers in contextual frameworks

This contribution consists of a report on research into the use of the bus context (boarding and leaving the bus) for introducing addition and subtraction in the first grade. Other contexts are taken into account as well, such as skittles, magic number tricks, birthday candles, rides in a ‘cart’, distribution of passengers on a double-decker bus, number-cards, and ages. These contexts influence the use of numbers and operations, which implies that numbers used within the bus context, for instance, will have different properties from numbers used to describe skittles. Important questions treated in this article include: “What is the role of contexts in different periods of education? Which contexts can be considered as realistic for children? Does it matter whether we give children a verbal problem about bus passengers or the same problem about skittles?” Apart from the sound, bus-numbers are not the same thing as skittles-numbers. Therefore, it makes sense to speak of numbers in a contextual framework. It is suggested that these contexts first be offered to the children separately before making comparisons between them. Play-acting plays a large part in this type of education. Finally, misconceptions which can arise regarding the bus-numbers, or because of a lack of context, are outlined.