Enhancing the Quality of Children’s Explanations to Promote Patterning Knowledge

• In Event: Research on Mathematical Explanations and Discourse

Abstract

Explanations are an important source of knowledge change. In the current study, we examined the impact of self-explanations alone or in combination with instructional-explanations for four-year-old children learning to abstract repeating patterns (i.e., create the same kind of pattern using new materials). Children provided a variety of explanations, some more sophisticated than others. Children in the combination condition often adopted the modeled explanation and used the abstract language in their own self-explanations. Further, children who used this abstract language exhibited higher knowledge of patterns on a posttest than children who did not. Overall, findings indicate that the quality of explanations matters and that combining self- and instructional-explanations can help young children develop an understanding of patterns.

Authors

• Emily Ruth Fyfe, Vanderbilt University

• Bethany Rittle-Johnson, Vanderbilt University

• Abbey M. Loehr, Vanderbilt University

• Michael Robert Miller, Vanderbilt University