ABSTRACT
An early childhood teacher in a Turkish preschool wishes for her children to experience geometrical shapes in a novel way, through the use of representations of real objects on a tablet computer. The vignette in this chapter reports on how the children and the preschool teacher interact around the computer, what representations are possible for the shapes, and how the children engage in problem-solving when confronted with challenges. While the learning of properties of shapes and the children’s explanation of their thinking is important to the first commentary, the role of digital technologies in early childhood is also discussed. The second commentary continues the consideration of digital technologies in young children’s mathematics learning along with providing many insights into some of the challenges in distinguishing geometric shapes through their properties. In the third commentary, written from a Norwegian/Russian perspective, the distinction between prototype-based thinking and properties-based thinking is emphasised and discussed.
