| behavior contagion | A phenomenon that occurs when children are influenced by each other's behavior. It is most noticeable in its negative form, when children are doing something they aren't supposed to do.
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| constructivist approach | A view based on Jean Piaget's work that suggests that children don't passively receive knowledge through being taught but rather actively construct it themselves.
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| logico-mathematical knowledge | One of three kinds of knowledge described by Jean Piaget. Logico-mathematical knowledge comes from physical knowledge and involves an understanding of relationships between objects through the use of comparison and seriation.
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| one-to-one correspondence | The understanding that counting involves assigning one number to each object or person being counted. This form of counting differs from reciting numbers by rote.
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| physical knowledge | One of three kinds of knowledge described by Jean Piaget. Physical knowledge involves an understanding--in concrete rather than abstract terms--of how objects and materials behave in the physical world.
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| real-world math | Math activities that relate directly to problems in the child's own world--as compared to theoretical problems that have nothing to do with the child's reality. Real-world math is sometimes called "authentic math."
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| social knowledge | One of three kinds of knowledge described by Jean Piaget. Social knowledge relates to knowledge about the world that can only be transmitted socially, such as labels for objects.
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| transformation and representation | Two processes that distinguish the constructivist approach from other teaching-learning approaches. Transformation involves processes of change, while representation portrays change in the form of traces. Activities of transformation and representation facilitate children's symbolic thinking.
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