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A Review of Math Education about Set based on Stories

The radical development of modern mathematics is due to the appearance of Collection Theory by George Cantor. The Set Theory is independent as an area and also closely interrelated with other areas. So its content becomes a common sense and a basic part across the whole area of modern mathematics. Accordingly, the basic element of modern mathematics is helping young children get familiar with set as early as possible. The thinking of set by which children can categorize, make partial sets and correspondences, understand the general characteristic, and conceptualize the discovered relationships is very important for young children. At this point where the Math education for young children is emphasized under the influence of the modernization movement of Math education, the systematic education for building up the set concept as the basic background of number concept during the early childhood is required. On current mathematics education for young children, graphs, the foundation of geometry, time, and patterns have been included in the traditional and practical content related to numbers. However, the education on collection which is the foundation of number concept is insufficient. A study shows that the level of young children's understanding on set is quite high, but the set concept isn't reflected in current Math curriculum for young children. And basic activities neccesary on building up the set concept, such as categorization, comparison, etc. are conducted in kindergardens but unsatisfactory because of those kindergarden teachers' premature understanding on the set concept. In conclusion, the curriculum for young children should be reorganized based on the set concept as the kernel concept. Also, the reappraisal of the training curriculum and the supplementary efucation for kindergarden teachers are urgent for raising the teaching ability of those kindergarden teachers.