Executive Function Facilitates Learning From Math Instruction

• In Event: 2-138 - Moderators of the Development of Mathematical Skills

Integrative Statement

Extensive evidence has suggested that math abilities in early childhood are a robust predictor of children’s later academic skills (Duncan et al., 2007; Jordan, Kaplan, Ramineni, & Locuniak, 2009) and eventual labor market outcomes (Rose, 2006). As such, there has been a renewed focus on the development of mathematical skills in early childhood that highlights the importance of attention to math-related pedagogy. Underlying the development of these interventions—and mathematics teaching and learning broadly—is a critical assumption: Students who receive more explicit instruction in mathematics will know more than will students who receive less. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in the extent to which different students learn from the same amount of math instruction and from similar contexts. Child self-regulation, specifically consolidated under executive function and approaches to learning, has emerged as a critical school readiness skill that might explain some of the heterogeneity in learning in early elementary grades (Blair & Ursache, 2011; Ursache, Blair, & Raver, 2013).

To investigate the role of math instruction in the development of mathematical skills and self-regulatory skills as sources of heterogeneity, data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort: 2010-2011 are employed. The ECLS-K is a nationally representative sample of 18,174 kindergarteners drawn from 968 schools collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. Children were assessed on their math and executive function skills in the fall and spring of each kindergarten, first, and second grade, and teachers reported instructional characteristics in the spring of each academic year. Approaches to learning were reported in the fall of the academic year.

Regression analyses suggest that, in kindergarten and second grade, math instruction is weakly related to development of mathematical skills over a large host of covariates, β = .05, p < .001; β = .03, p < .001, respectively. As well, in kindergarten but in no other grade, teacher reported time spent doing math on a given week was weakly related to development of skills, β = .03, p < .001. In all grades, start-of-year executive function is moderately related to development of math skills over the course of each academic year, βs = .08 - .11, ps < .001, and that approaches to learning is related to development of skills in kindergarten and first grades, β = .03, p < .001; β = .05, p < .001, respectively. Over and above direct effects, there was a significant interaction between executive function and math instruction in kindergarten and second grade such that students with higher executive function skills gained more from the same amounts of instruction than did their peers with lower levels of executive function, β = .06, p = .023; β = .04, p = .009. At time of presentation, piecewise growth curve modeling will be applied, and implications for policy and practice will be discussed.

Author

• Andrew Ribner, New York University
  Presenting Author