73 research outputs found
The role of math games for children’s early math learning: A systematic review [Author Accepted Manuscript]
No full textMath learning in early childhood is critical for later success, as it is predictive of mathematical and academic achievement through adolescence. Therefore, developing engaging and effective methods for early math instruction are important. Math games are a common method for teaching math in a way that is motivating and engaging for young children and are often used in early childhood classrooms. However, research on what games are effective and who can benefit from playing them often focuses on single elements or contexts of gameplay, and there is little research summarizing the effects of math games on children’s learning. The current systematic review presents research on the impact of math games on preschool through third grade children’s math development, examining what game contexts, types, and content areas are effective for math learning, who can learn from games, and what features of math games effectively promote learning in early childhood. Themes in the literature include the impact of game design factors, math outcomes studied, and dosage of gameplay for learning through games. The review reveals that future research is needed to compare the effects of gameplay across contexts and to examine additional factors influencing children’s learning from games.Mary DePascale: Research supported by the National Science Foundation (grant number: 2222218).reviewedacceptedVersio
Influence of a Playful, Child-Directed Context on Preschool Children\u27s Peer Cooperation
No full textEmpirical and theoretical literature on cooperative problem solving in preschool children suggests that integrating features of play into structured, experimental settings should increase the benefits of joint peer interactions and task performance. Four- and five-year-old peer dyads completed a playful, flexible, and child-driven building task or a more structured, adult-driven building task. As predicted, children in the playful condition built more complex structures, used more observational learning, and engaged in greater positive joint communication than did children in the structured condition. Condition differences carried over into a subsequent joint building task. Results suggest that cooperative problem-solving activities that allow children greater control of the task goals and interaction, similar to play contexts, can promote higher levels of cooperation and more effective learning and performance in young children
The Role of Math Games for Children’s Early Math Learning: A Systematic Review
No full textMath learning in early childhood is critical for later success, as it is predictive of mathematical and academic achievement through adolescence. Therefore, developing engaging and effective methods for early math instruction are important. Math games are a common method for teaching math in a way that is motivating and engaging for young children and are often used in early childhood classrooms. However, research on what games are effective and who can benefit from playing them often focuses on single elements or contexts of gameplay, and there is little research summarizing the effects of math games on children’s learning. The current systematic review presents research on the impact of math games on preschool through third grade children’s math development, examining what game contexts, types, and content areas are effective for math learning, who can learn from games, and what features of math games effectively promote learning in early childhood. Themes in the literature include the impact of game design factors, math outcomes studied, and dosage of gameplay for learning through games. The review reveals that future research is needed to compare the effects of gameplay across contexts and to examine additional factors influencing children’s learning from games
Connecting the dots: Examining the role of parental beliefs and preschoolers’ affect and engagement in predicting parent-child number exploration during a meaningful math experience
No full textThe current study examined the frequency and quality of how 3- to 4-year-old children and their parents explore the relations between symbolic and non-symbolic quantities in the context of a playful math experience, as well as the role of both parent and child factors in this exploration. Preschool children’s numerical knowledge was assessed while parents completed a survey about the number-related experiences they share with their children at home, and their math-related beliefs. Parent-child dyads were then videotaped playing a modified version of the card game War.
Results suggest that parents and children explored quantity explicitly on only half of the cards and card pairs played, and dyads of young children and those with lower number knowledge tended to be most explicit in their quantity exploration. Dyads with older children, on the other hand, often completed their turns without discussing the numbers at all, likely because they were knowledgeable enough about numbers that they could move through the game with ease. However, when dyads did explore the quantities explicitly, they focused on identifying numbers symbolically, used non-symbolic card information interchangeably with symbolic information to make the quantity comparison judgments, and in some instances, emphasized the connection between the symbolic and non-symbolic number representations on the cards. Parents reported that math experiences such as card game play and quantity comparison occurred relatively infrequently at home compared to activities geared towards more foundational practice of number, such as counting out loud and naming numbers. However, parental beliefs were important in predicting both the frequency of at-home math engagement as well as the quality of these experiences. In particular, parents’ specific beliefs about their children’s abilities and interests were associated with the frequency of home math activities, while parents’ math-related ability beliefs and values along with children’s engagement in the card game were associated with the quality of dyads’ number exploration during the card game.
Taken together, these findings suggest that card games can be an engaging context for parent-preschooler exploration of numbers in multiple representations, and suggests that parents’ beliefs and children’s level of engagement are important predictors of this exploration
The development of symbolic magnitude understanding in early childhood
No full textThe path towards mathematics success starts early, as initial numerical knowledge sets the foundation for children’s later mathematics learning. In particular, young children’s knowledge of numerical magnitudes, like knowing that seven is more than three, is theorized to play an important role in their mathematical development. In support of this perspective, there is consistent evidence that symbolic magnitude skills, or knowledge of how written numerals and number words can be ordered and compared, predict mathematical achievement in childhood and adulthood. Yet less is known about the antecedents and consequents of symbolic magnitude understanding in preschool. The goal of the present study was to understand whether symbolic magnitude knowledge in early childhood relates to later math achievement and identify foundational numerical and general cognitive skills that underlie the development of symbolic magnitude knowledge.
One hundred and forty Head Start preschoolers aged 3 – 5 years old were assessed in the winter and spring of the school year to test a theory-driven conceptual model of symbolic magnitude development. Specifically, children’s knowledge of the cardinal value represented by numbers, such as knowing that the number word “four” can be represented with four objects, was hypothesized to predict their symbolic magnitude understanding, with children’s symbolic magnitude understanding in turn predicting their symbolic addition skills controlling for children’s executive functioning skills, age, and gender.
There was significant evidence in favor of the proposed conceptual model, specifically that children’s cardinality skills predicted their concurrent and later symbolic magnitude understanding; children’s symbolic magnitude understanding predicted their later addition skills; and children’s executive functioning skills predicted each of their numerical skills uniquely. Findings suggest symbolic magnitude understanding fully mediates the relation between children’s cardinality and addition skills, and both domain-general executive functioning and domain-specific cardinality and magnitude skills assessed in the winter explain a similar amount of variability in children’s spring addition skills. These findings will be used to inform the design of comprehensive early numeracy interventions to help parents, teachers, and researchers best support the mathematical development of young children
GUIDED DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES SUPPORTING MATHEMATICAL UNDERSTANDING IN CHILDREN
No full textEarly numerical knowledge lays the foundation for later mathematics achievement, career advancement, and daily functioning. Therefore, it is troubling that mathematics achievement in the United States is especially poor. For this reason, it is crucial that ways to improve learning outcomes in young children, particularly in the area of mathematical development are explored. Mathematics is a complex process, which requires flexible thinking, exploration and analysis of novel, complicated, and real world problems. Guided discovery is a pedagogical context, which is adult-initiated and child-directed and promotes flexible thinking, analysis of complex problems- the same skills required for early mathematical learning. The goal of this study was to examine the effectiveness of one element of guided discovery- dialogic inquiry- for improving children’s numerical knowledge when used in a guided discovery setting. Dialogic inquiry is the practice of asking questions that lead children to think differently about the mathematical concepts at hand or act differently on the objects in their environments.
Ninety-four preschoolers played a life-sized linear number board game under three conditions and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: math-related dialogic inquiry, math statements, and positive encouragement. Children’s learning from pretest to posttest was compared on four numerical knowledge outcomes: number line estimation, magnitude comparison, arithmetic, and ordinality. Additionally, children’s mathematical talk and behavior during board game play were compared across conditions.
Children in the dialogic inquiry condition improved more than children in the math statements and positive encouragement conditions on arithmetic performance. Children in the math statements condition declined in performance on magnitude comparison significantly more than children in the dialogic inquiry and positive encouragement conditions. Lastly, children in both the dialogic inquiry and math statements conditions outperformed children in the positive encouragement condition on ordinality. There were no significant differences between conditions for mathematical talk and behavior. Understanding the specific mechanisms, such as dialogic inquiry, which contribute to the effectiveness of guided discovery will improve the implementation of guided discovery pedagogies aimed at improving numerical knowledge
The Relation Between Math Anxiety and Play Behaviors in 4- to 6-Year-Old Children
No full textFrom a young age, children’s math achievement is influenced by individual factors, such as math anxiety. While math anxiety has been linked to math avoidance, few studies have explored this link in young children, particularly in the context of play. Because play-based instruction is commonly used for math in early childhood classrooms, understanding the impact of math anxiety on children’s engagement in math-related play may have important implications for children’s early math learning. The current study examined the role of children’s math anxiety in their persistence and exploration during a math toy play task. We observed wide variability in children’s play behaviors, finding that children’s actions during play did not relate to their math anxiety, but their talk related to math while playing with the toy did. There are also age and gender differences in math anxiety, school experience, and reasoning about the toy play task. These results suggest that math anxiety may influence certain aspects of children’s engagement in math-related play, and that more research is needed to consider links between math anxiety and math avoidance in young children
Promoting broad and stable improvements in low-income children’s numerical knowledge through playing number board games
No full textTheoretical analyses of the development of numerical representations suggest that playing linear number board games should enhance young children’s numerical knowledge. Consistent with this prediction, playing such a game for roughly 1 hr increased low-income preschoolers ’ (mean age 5 5.4 years) proficiency on 4 diverse numerical tasks: numericalmagnitude comparison, number line estimation, counting, andnumeral identification. The gains remained 9 weeks later. Classmates who played an identical game, except for the squares varying in color rather than number, did not improve on any measure. Also as predicted, home experience playing number board games correlated positively with numerical knowledge. Thus, playing number board games with children from low-income backgrounds may increase their numerical knowledge at the outset of school. Children vary greatly in the mathematical knowledge they possess when they enter school. These differ-ences in initial mathematical knowledge appear to have large, long-term consequences. Proficiency in mathematics at the beginning of kindergarten is strongly predictive of mathematics achievement test scores years later: in elementary school, in middl
When one size does not fit all: A latent profile analysis of low-income preschoolers' math skills
No full textOn average, preschoolers from lower-income households perform worse on symbolic numerical tasks than preschoolers from middle- and upper-income households. Although many recent studies have developed and tested mathematics interventions for low-income preschoolers, the variability within this population has received less attention. The goal of the current study was to describe the variability in low-income children’s math skills using a person-centered analysis. We conducted a latent profile analysis on six measures of preschoolers’ (N = 115, mean age = 4.6 years) numerical abilities (nonsymbolic magnitude comparison, verbal counting, object counting, cardinality, numeral identification, and symbolic magnitude comparison). The results showed different patterns of strengths and weaknesses and revealed four profiles of numerical skills: (a) poor math abilities on all numerical measures (n = 13), (b) strong math abilities on all numerical measures (n = 41), (c) moderate abilities on all numerical measures (n = 35), and (d) strong counting and numeral skills but poor magnitude skills (n = 26). Children’s age, working memory, and inhibitory control significantly predicted their profile membership. We found evidence of quantitative and qualitative differences between profiles, such that some profiles were higher performing across tasks than others, but the overall patterns of performance varied across the different numerical skills assessed
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