Supporting Preschool Students’ Engagement in Meaningful Mathematics Through Play

• In Event: Mathematics + Early Childhood = ?

Abstract

Purpose: In line with recent reports on mathematics in early childhood (NAEYC & NCTM, 2002; NRC, 2009) the latest handbook on Developmentally Appropriate Practice asked that teachers become more intentional in their interactions with children (Copple & Bredekamp (Eds.), 2009). Becoming more intentional will require drawing on excellent mathematics curricula, but will also require that teachers develop skills to recognize and scaffold significant mathematics during play. This study moves toward this second goal by identifying the significant mathematics that occurred during play and examining the scaffolding preschool teachers used to highlight mathematics in that play.

Perspectives: This study is framed by earlier work in early childhood education, which sees play as central to children’s growth and development broadly (Copple & Bredekamp (Eds.), 2009; Saracho & Spodek, 1998) and important to their mathematical learning specifically (e.g., Seo & Ginsburg, 2004). The new Common Core Standards for Mathematics played an important role in helping researchers identify significant mathematical practices and important content.

Methods and Data Sources: Using ethnographic perspectives and tools (Erickson, 1986), this study documented the mathematical play of children in a preschool classroom in rural Georgia. The 16 children in the study all qualified for free lunch. Fourteen children were black; one was Hispanic; one was white. Each week from August until May, researchers videotaped free play periods in the preschool classroom as well as teacher-directed mathematics lessons. Teachers were interviewed informally throughout the year and children were interviewed twice. Researchers used Nvivo software to code and compare video and transcript data during analysis.

Results: The study found three materials particularly productive for significant mathematical play: Lego blocks, puzzles, and dolls. These toys provided the most frequent opportunities for children to engage with important mathematical practices and more complex content. In addition to counting, when using Legos, children compared and composed lengths, constructed perimeters, and experimented with symmetry. In solving puzzles, children used spatial reasoning to fit together appropriate shapes and composed and decomposed wholes. In playing with dolls, children compared lengths, used proportional reasoning to match clothing to dolls, and experimented with symmetry and halves through the folding of clothes and blankets. When the teachers in the study interacted with children during mathematical play (across all the data not just the toys described above), they emphasized counting and shape identification; and rarely addressed mathematical practices and other content. Based on observed interactions and interviews, mathematical play in the doll corner was entirely unrecognized by teachers.

Scholarly Significance: The connections this study draws between play activities and mathematical content can help teacher educators support practitioners in scaffolding mathematical thinking during play and in using play experiences to design formal lessons. In addition, this study demonstrated that poor and minority children engaged in a variety of problem solving activities, while teachers directed children toward counting and shape identification. This suggests that young children from diverse backgrounds may bring mathematical strengths into preschool that have not been fully recognized by teachers and researchers.

Author

• Amy Noelle Parks, University of Georgia