How Does Activity Context Relate to Parents’ Responses to Preschoolers’ Mathematical Errors?

• In Event: Looking Beyond Quantity: Using Surveys and Observations to Examine the Nature of Parents’ Mathematical Engagement

Abstract

Before elementary school, children are exposed to mathematics in the home, including formal teaching activities that emphasize mathematics and informal activities where mathematical concepts are integrated into everyday activities but learning mathematics is not the emphasis (Manolitsis et al., 2013). Although both types of activities positively relate to children’s mathematics achievement (Daucourt et al., 2021), we know little about how the specific processes by which parents facilitate mathematics learning might differ across contexts. Activity context may influence whether parents are more focused on promoting children’s conceptual understanding of mathematics versus completing a task, which in turn may affect how parents respond to children’s errors (Renshaw & Gardner, 1990). Given that children’s errors during parent-child joint activities provide opportunities for learning (Vygotsky, 1978), the goal of this study was to observe how parents attended to children’s mathematics learning in response to children’s mathematical errors in different activity contexts. Specifically, we examined differences in whether parents responded to children’s errors, and when responding, whether they only provided the answer or encouraged children’s further engagement and learning.
In the present study, parents and preschoolers (ages 4-5; N=49 dyads) explored fraction concepts using toy foods partitioned into pieces. Dyads were randomly assigned to either a guided play condition (n=25) where they were given a storybook guiding them through fraction concepts that could be explored with the toy foods or a formal learning condition (n=24) that included a worksheet with decontextualized versions of the fraction questions included in the storybook. To further differentiate the contexts, in the guided play condition, dyads were given additional picnic playset items and the activity was presented to parents as playful learning, whereas the formal learning condition was presented as a learning activity with materials rather than toys, and the food pieces were glued together so that they could not be manipulated but the partitions could still be viewed. To examine parents’ focus on children’s mathematics learning, we coded parents’ responses to children’s mathematical errors, ranging from no response or minimal feedback to giving answers or asking questions encouraging further mathematics exploration or deeper conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts (see Table 1).
Preliminary multiple regression analyses controlling for parent education, child age and gender indicated that parents in the formal learning condition did not differ in how frequently they provided minimal feedback (ß=.004, p=.912) and elaborative guidance (ß=.004, p=.923) compared to parents in the guided play condition. However, we observed condition effects for no response and giving the correct answers such that parents in the guided play condition were more likely to not respond to children’s errors (ß=.04, p=.012) and parents in the formal learning condition more frequently gave the correct answer (ß=-.05, p=.038; see Table 2).
Although parents in both conditions frequently responded to child errors by encouraging further mathematics exploration, the differences in parents’ responses suggest that activity context may inform how attuned parents are to learning opportunities. In practice, guidance offered to parents on how to support children’s mathematical learning may need to consider activity context.

Authors

• Can Carkoglu, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Presenting Author

• Sarah H. Eason, Purdue University, West Lafayette