Recent meta-analyses have demonstrated a significant association between children’s early math achievement and their experiences with math at home, including their caregivers’ talk about math. However, few studies have investigated the relations between caregiver math talk and children’s learning with experimental designs. Eighty-six children (M = 5.0 years) and their caregivers were randomly assigned to play either a numeracy or a shape card game at home for six weeks. Data were collected on children’s number and shape knowledge and families’ math talk during gameplay. There was substantial participant attrition (42% did not return completed materials), however, both an intent-to-treat analysis of the sample that received study materials and a subgroup analysis of study completers showed that children who played the shape game significantly improved their shape naming and matching skills relative to children who played the number game. Children who played the number game did not significantly improve their numerical skills relative to children who played the shape game. Mathematical talk during gameplay varied between families but was correlated over time within families. Caregivers’ and children’s talk about matching cards by shape or color predicted children’s learning from the shape game. The results suggest that despite receiving uniform instructions and materials, there was significant variability in children’s home math experiences that predicted their learning from the card game.
more »
« less
Adding Family Math to the Equation: Promoting Head Start preschoolers’ mathematics learning at home and school
Differences in children’s mathematics knowledge are evident at kindergarten entry, favoring children who
have greater access to economic resources. Fostering preschoolers’ mathematics learning at home and in
classroom settings, through games and other developmentally appropriate activities, is of great interest
to educators, early childhood leaders, and policymakers. This cluster randomized trial examined the ef-
fects of a naturalistic, game-based mathematics intervention implemented in Head Start classrooms and
examined whether including a family math component added value. A total of 573 children (64% His-
panic; 60% multilingual) were included from 66 classrooms which were randomly assigned to Classroom
Math (CM), Classroom Math + Family Math (CM+FM), or business-as-usual (BAU). Results indicated that
the family math component did add value to the classroom-based intervention as CM+FM resulted in
a significant positive impact on children’s mathematics knowledge relative to BAU, but CM alone did
not. For preschoolers age 50+ months, both interventions had significant effects on children’s mathemat-
ics knowledge relative to BAU, but CM+FM had a stronger effect (d = .36). The number of math games
played was significantly associated with higher mathematics scores and the number of family math mini-
books returned had a significant impact on children’s spring scores, over and above the number of games
played. The CM+FM intervention also had a significant effect on teachers’ instructional practice (d =.79).
Adding a family math component to a game-based classroom intervention resulted in positive impacts for
preschoolers and seems to be an effective, ecologically valid intervention that fosters early mathematical
competencies.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1907904
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10414052
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Early childhood research quarterly
- Volume:
- 63
- Issue:
- 2023
- ISSN:
- 1873-7706
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 43-58
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
To support preschool children’s learning about data in an applied way that allows children to leverage their existing mathematical knowledge (i.e. counting, sorting, classifying, comparing) and apply it to answering authentic, developmentally appropriate research questions with data. To accomplish this ultimate goal, a design-based research approach [1] was used to develop and test a classroom-based preschool intervention that includes hands-on, play-based investigations with a digital app that supports and scaffolds the investigation process for teachers and children. This formative study was part of a codesign process with teachers to elicit feedback on the extent to which the series of investigations focused on data collection and analysis (DCA) and the teacher-facing app were (a) developmentally appropriate, (b) aligned with current preschool curricula and routines, (c) feasible to implement, and (d) included design elements and technology affordances teachers felt were useful and anticipated to promote learning. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews (n=10) and an online survey (n=19) with preschool teachers. Findings suggest that teaching preschoolers how to collect and analyze data in a hands-on, play-based, and developmentally appropriate way is feasible and desirable for preschool teachers. Specifically, teachers reported that the initial conceptualization of the investigations were developmentally appropriate, aligned with existing curricular activities and goals, was adaptable for the age and developmental readiness of young children, and that the affordances of the technology are likely to allow preschool children to engage meaningfully in data collection, visualization, and analysis. Findings also suggest that this approach to supporting preschool teachers and children to learn about and conduct DCA merits further study to ensure productive curricular implementation that positively influences preschoolers’ learning. These findings were used to revise the investigations and app, which showed positive outcomes when used in classrooms [2], which add to the scant literature on DCA learning for pre-schoolers and provides insights into the best ways to integrate technology into the classroom.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)This workshop will focus on how to teach data collection and analysis to preschoolers. Our project aims to promote preschoolers’ engagement with, and learning of, mathematics and computational thinking (CT) with a set of classroom activities that engage preschoolers in a data collection and analysis (DCA) process. To do this, the project team is engaging in an iterative cycle of development and testing of hands-on, play-based, curricular investigations with feedback from teachers. A key component of the intervention is a teacher-facing digital app (for teachers to use with students on touch-screen tablets) to support the collaboration of preschool teachers and children in collecting data, creating simple graphs, and using the graphs to answer real-world questions. The curricular investigations offer an applied context for using mathematical knowledge (i.e., counting, sorting, classifying, comparing, contrasting) to engage with real-world investigations and lay the foundation for developing flexible problem-solving skills. Each investigation follows a series of instructional tasks that scaffold the problem-solving process and includes (a) nine hands-on and play-based problem-solving investigations where children answer real-world questions by collecting data, creating simple graphs, and interpreting the graphs and. (b) a teacher- facing digital app to support specific data collection and organization steps (i.e., collecting, recording, visualizing). This workshop will describe: (1) the rationale and prior research conducted in this domain, (2) describe an intervention in development focused on data collection and analysis content for preschoolers that develop mathematical (common core standards) and computational thinking skills (K-12 Computational Thinking Framework Standards), (3) demonstrates an app in development that guides teacher and preschoolers through the investigation process and generates graphs to answer questions (NGSS practice standards), (4) report on feedback from a pilot study conducted virtually in preschool classrooms; and (5) describe developmentally appropriate practices for engaging young children in investigations, data collection, and data analysis.more » « less
-
Effective K-12 integrated STEM education should reflect an intentional effort to adequately represent and facilitate each of its component disciplines in a meaningful way. However, most research in this space has been conducted within the context of science classrooms, ignoring mathematics. Also missing from the literature is research that examines the level of cognitive demand required from mathematical tasks present within integrated STEM lessons. In order to seek insight pertaining to this gap in the literature, we sought to better understand how science teachers use mathematics within K-12 integrated STEM instruction. We used an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design to explore the enactment of mathematics in integrated STEM lessons that focus on physical, earth, and life science content. We first examined 2030 sets of video-recorded classroom observation scores generated from the 10-item STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP) designed for observing integrated STEM education in K-12 classrooms. We compared the STEM-OP scores of classroom observations that included mathematics with those that did not. This quantitative analysis was followed by a closer, more in-depth qualitative examination of how mathematics was employed, focusing on the degree of cognitive demand. To do this, we coded and analyzed transcripts from video-recorded classroom observations in which mathematical content was present. Our study yielded two main findings about mathematics in integrated STEM lessons: (1) the presence of mathematical content resulted in higher STEM-OP scores on nearly all items, and (2) mathematical tasks within these lessons were categorized as requiring mainly low levels of cognitive demand from students. This study highlights the need for the increased inclusion of mathematical tasks in integrated STEM teaching. Implications for including higher-order mathematical thinking within integrated STEM teaching are discussed.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Children’s early numerical knowledge establishes a foundation for later development of mathematics achievement and playing linear number board games is effective in improving basic numeri- cal abilities. Besides the visuo-spatial cues provided by traditional number board games, learning companion robots can integrate multi-sensory information and offer social cues that can support children’s learning experiences. We explored how young children experience sensory feedback (audio and visual) and social expressions from a robot when playing a linear number board game, “RoboMath.” We present the interaction design of the game and our investigation of children’s (n = 19, aged 4) and parents’ experiences under three conditions: (1) visual-only, (2) audio-visual, and (3) audio- visual-social robot interaction. We report our qualitative analysis, including the themes observed from interviews with families on their perceptions of the game and the interaction with the robot, their child’s experiences, and their design recommendations.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
