Development of Evaluative Knowledge In the Teaching of Mathematics for Students of Younger School Age

The paper starts from the consideration of mathematical literacy and the possibility and necessity of its development at an early school age. The authors operationalize the notion of mathematical literacy through three levels of knowledge: reproductive, integrative, and evaluative, and especially indicate the importance and possibilities of developing the highest level of knowledge. A special review is given to the possibility of developing evaluative knowledge in students of younger school age, as the highest level of mathematical literacy. In order to determine the possibility of developing evaluative knowledge among students of younger school age, an experimental study was carried out on a sample of 191 third-grade students in the primary schools “Leposavić” in Leposavić, “Stana Bačanin” in Lešku and “Raška” in Raška. The influence of the constructed content of mathematics lessons on the development of evaluative knowledge among students of younger school age was tested experimentally. The results of the application of the experimental program showed that the application of adequately designed mathematical content, connected to the real life context, can significantly contribute to the development of evaluative knowledge and abilities even among students of younger school age.