Professional Development to Support Math Talk in Pre-K Classrooms

• In Event: Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Promising Practices for Professional Development in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of professional development to support preK teachers to identify and build on children’s multiple mathematical resources to assure children from ethnically, economically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds had equitable opportunities to learn mathematics. One outcome of the PD was an increase in the quantity and quality of math talk in teachers’ preK classrooms – an important aspect of early mathematics learning. We offer a hypothesized trajectory to explain the development of math talk moving from teacher-directed activities to responding to the mathematics children engage with in play.

Authors

• Anita A. Wager, University of Wisconsin

• Jiwon Kim, University of Wisconsin - Madison