Kindergarten Teachers' Errors During Mathematics Instruction

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers of Mathematics

Abstract

We analyze 600 video-recorded mathematics lessons obtained from 60 kindergarten teachers, each of whom taught 5 lessons in the fall and 5 lessons in the spring. We use the Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI; Hill, 2014), a mathematics-specific observation protocol, to rate the lessons. Focusing on the MQI’s Errors and Imprecisions domain, we examine lesson segments marked with errors and unpack the discourse in order to document specific error themes across lessons. We examine whether the incidence of errors: (a) is specific to particular kindergarten content standards; (b) is predicted by other indices of quality as assessed by the MQI; and (c) varies by mathematics content standard, teacher characteristics (experience, education), curriculum used, and classroom SES.

Authors

• Panayota Y. Mantzicopoulos, Purdue University

• Qian Li, Purdue University

• Yaheng Lu, Washington University School of Medicine

• Helen Patrick, Purdue University