Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

This paper reviews the current research in mathematics cognition and neuroscience. The proponents of mathematics cognition have related the subject to neuroscience because cognition involves the mental application involved in mathematical knowledge acquisition. By definition neuroscience is the science that relays the physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of the brain its nerves and nerve tissues in their relation to behaviour and learning. Mathematical cognition focus on the scientific understanding of the cognitive function of the brain as it engages in mathematical interactions. Cognition is the mental process by which knowledge is acquired. It refers to thinking, understanding and remembering and the conscious mental activity involved in achieving aspects of awareness, perception, reasoning and judgement. Mathematics has been explained as a system for representing and reasoning about quantities, with arithmetic as its basis. By its nature it implies that mathematical engagement is a cognitive activity. Neuroscientists have asserted that all human behaviour is generated by the brain therefore we can argue that all human being are born with innate capability for mathematics and at a very early age, this capability is shaped by the strength and authenticity of the mathematical exposure. I conclude in this paper that by combining research of what goes on in the brain with how children learn mathematics we would acquire a lot more than adopting an isolated approach to effective instructions in mathematics classrooms.