How Shapes Became a Song: Participation Affordances of Play-Integrated Kindergarten Geometry

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Early Childhood Education: Access, Pedagogy, Leadership, and Family Support (Table 3)

Abstract

This project seeks to investigate the role of play in facilitating meaningful mathematical participation in a kindergarten classroom. Drawing on video data from a week-long series of play-integrated geometry lessons, I analyze one particular moment of geometrical participation between four kindergarten students engaged with pattern blocks. Preliminary findings suggest that play opened a space for students to authentically interact with one another and to engage with disciplinary knowledge. These initial findings point to future considerations of the role of play in reimagining discourses of participation in mathematics classrooms and repositioning students as mathematical experts.

Author

• Jamie Vescio, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author