Learning to compute without counting: A matter of patterns

In the German-language literature on mathematics education it is widely held that children should have overcome the use of counting-based strategies to add or subtract by the end of first grade. However, there is empirical evidence that currently a notable part of children, at least in Austrian classrooms, is missing that target by far. In my speech I refer to an ongoing study conducted with Austrian first- and second-graders whose teachers took part in an inservice-training programme designed to promote derivation strategies. The teachers tried to convey non-counting strategies based on the recognition and use of arithmetical patterns from the very beginning of the first school-year on a systematic basis. First results of interviews conducted at the end of first, and at the beginning of second grade, are encouraging. However, the reremain open questions and problems to be solved that I am looking forward to discuss with my colleagues in Ruzomberok.