Exploring Relations Between Classroom-Level Strategic Diversity and Achievement in Early Mathematics

• In Event: Topics in Early Childhood Mathematics

Abstract

Strategic processes are a form of procedural knowledge in which a child knows how to enact a given strategy in problem solving or learning. Children vary substantially in use of different strategies, with most research on alternative strategies focused on intra-individual variability. The present study explores the relations between inter-individual strategy diversity and mathematical achievement as children moved from preschool to kindergarten and first grade. A new approach of measuring classroom strategy diversity was developed to capture classroom-level strategic diversity. The results show that early strategy diversity was strongly related to achievement, but subsequently, less diversity was so related. We compared these results to the predictions of three theoretical categories and found that our results mainly supported one.

Authors

• Douglas H. Clements, University of Denver

• Denis Dumas, University of Denver

• Yixiao Dong, University of Denver

• Holland Windels Banse, University of Alabama

• Julie Sarama, University of Denver

• Crystal A Day-Hess, University of Denver