The purpose of this study is to understand the number and operation abilities of first grade students when entering elementary school, and to discuss the effects of pre-schooleducation. The study was conducted on sixty-nine students in Pingtung County fromelementary schools during the first four weeks of the fall semester. “TEMA-2” was adoptedas the measuremen instnrument. Data were analyzed by “One-way ANOVA”. Results are asfollows: (1)Most subjects performed well on numbers under ten in all aspects. (2)The firstgrade students in Pingtung County can already recognize two digits numbers in readingand writing in spite that the materials are not covered in the formal mathematicalcurriculum. (3)Different years of pre-school education experiences do not significantlyaffect first graders’ performances on reading and writing for two digits numbers, neither on counting, calculating, number comparisons for the one digit numbers.
Keywords: first grade, formal mathematical ability, informal mathematical ability, number and operation ability, Pingtung County, pre-school