Multiplicative thinking in Shipibo-konibo children from Ucayali, Peru: A Piagetian perspective

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify and describe levels of multiplicative thinking in a group of Shipibo-Konibo children from the Ucayali region, in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Fourteen elementary school students from two Shipibo-Konibo communities, boys and girls aged between 7 and 12 years old, participated in the study. They were evaluated using Jean Piaget’s clinical-critical method, with a multiplication task that included manipulative materials (wooden fish in three different sizes, and plastic beads representing local food staples). The children’s responses to the proposed task revealed six levels of development of multiplicative thinking, consistent with previous research findings and indicative of the universality of logical-mathematical structures. The study also found that children have difficulty to solve the multiplication task, take proportions into account, and offer arguments to justify their answers. These results are discussed with an emphasis on the universality of the process of multiplicative knowledge construction, the cultural specificities that can support this process, and the need to understand that multiplication, although it is introduced in the curricula at third grade, remains a complex operation even for children in higher grades.