African Educational Research Journal - Special Issue 8(2) - Full Length Research Paper - The Analysis of Preschool Children's Inversion Skills

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanford

This study examines preschool children’s inversion skills through differentiation across variables including age, gender, school type, and mothers’ and fathers’ education levels. The sample includes 80 children aged 53–76 months in Istanbul, attending public and private preschools. The “Inversion Skills Scale” yields two sub-scales: inversion with concrete objects and inversion in verbal problems. Results show no significant gender or age effects, but private-school attendance improves performance in verbal problems.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Arithmetic concepts and the place of inversion

Inversion principle in addition and subtraction

Theoretical perspectives (Piaget) and learning debates

Educational importance and acquisition challenges

African Educational Research Journal Special Issue 8(2), pp. S85-S94, October 2020 DOI: [10.30918/AERJ.xx.xx.xxx](10.30918/AERJ.xx.xx.xxx)[ ](10.30918/AERJ.xx.xx.xxx)ISSN: 2354-2160 Full Length Research Paper The analysis of preschool children's inversion skills Yıldız Güven 1, H. Bengü Uzel2 and Özlem Dönmez1* 1 Early Childhood Education Department, Maltepe University, Turkey. 2Kazım Özalp Primary School, Turkey. | ABSTRACT
This study aimed to examine the inversion skills of preschool children. Within the framework of the main objective of this study, the differentiation of children’s inversion skills was analyzed according to various variables (age, gender, school type, mother’s and father’s education level) . The study group consisted of a total of 80 children (40 girls, 40 boys) of 53-76-month-old (average 67.5 months), attending a publicanda private preschool in Istanbul. 29 of the children were 53-66-month-old and 51 of them were 67-76-monthold. Data were collected by using "Personal Information Form" and "Inversion Skills Scale" . The scale developed for this study was found to have 2 sub-scales (inversion with concrete objects and inversion in verbal problems) . As a result of further analyzes, the measuring tool was decided to be valid and reliable. According to the results of the study, the gender and age variables did not have any significant difference in children’sinversion skills, whereas a significant difference was found in the verbal problems subdimension in favor of children attending private school. In addition, the findings indicated significant differences in overall and verbal problems sub-dimension of children's inversion skillsin favor of the children whose mothers have bachelor degree and above. Additionally, a significant difference was found in working with concrete objects and verbal problems sub-dimensions and inversion skills total point, in favor of the children whose fathers have bachelor degree or above.
Keywords: Preschool children, inversion skills. | | --- | | *Corresponding author. E-mail: [ozlemdonmez@maltepe.edu.tr](ozlemdonmez@maltepe.edu.tr). | INTRODUCTION Arithmetic is the branch of mathematics that involves counting, numbers and the properties of fractions, and the basic operations applied to these numbers. Arithmetic concepts have an important place in mathematical cognition. Before starting primary school, children begin to learn arithmetic problem solving skills involving objects, using appropriate problem-solving methods (Ginsburg et al. , 1998; Klein and Bisanz, 2000) . Although children cannot fully understand the principles of arithmetic during this period, but they can understand that addition increases the number of the sequence and subtraction decreases it (Ginsburg et al. , 1998) . Solving addition and subtraction problems requires understanding the relationship between addition and subtraction (Bryant et al. , 1999; Gilmore and Bryant, 2006; Vilette, 2002) . There is an inverse relationship between addition and subtraction, which are the two concepts of arithmetic (Robinson and Dubé, 2009) . Ramful and Olive (2008) state that inversion is related to mathematical operations, fractions, comparisons, algebra and other sub-topics of mathematics. Inversion is helpful in understanding the process of checking the answer by running it backwards after solving a problem and finding the result. Inversion skill is a useful and flexible mathematical strategy to establish an arithmetic link among numbers (Greer, 2012; Robinson et al. , 2006) . The inverse relationship between addition and subtraction defines the “Inversion Principle”. In a “a + b – b” or “a-b + b” type problem, the result should be equal to “a”. Children who understand the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction realize that adding and subtracting the same amount does not change the initial amount, and therefore no calculation is required (Baroody and Lai, 2007; Baroodyet al. ,

FAQs

What was the main objective of the study?

To examine preschool children’s inversion skills and analyze how these skills differ across variables such as age, gender, school type, and parental education levels.

How were inversion skills measured?

Using the “Inversion Skills Scale” with data collected via a “Personal Information Form,” producing two sub-scales: inversion with concrete objects and inversion in verbal problems.

Which factors showed significant differences in inversion skills?

Gender and age showed no significant differences. Significant differences were found in verbal problems for children attending private school, and in overall and verbal-problem performance for children whose mothers had bachelor’s degree or above; father education similarly affected concrete-object and verbal-problem sub-dimensions and the total score.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanford