Preschool Teachers' Barriers to Implementing Combined Math and Executive Functioning Activities

• In Event: Novel Approaches to Strengthening Young Children's Math and Executive Functioning Skills

Abstract

Nationally, there has been relatively little emphasis on mathematics instruction in preschool classrooms (Farran, 2019). Given the competing behavioral needs of preschool children, Head Start teachers, specifically, are often disinclined to “sacrifice” time towards academics when many children have trouble sitting still long enough to engage in meaningful learning to begin with (Jacoby & Lesaux, 2017). However, the integration of self-regulation activities with academic content could maximize time in the classroom. The foundation of children’s self-regulation—executive functioning (EF) skills—can be readily integrated in math activities because most of mathematical thinking involves working memory, cognitive flexibility, response inhibition, and attention control. In the current study, we followed up on a pilot intervention where we found a statistically significant impact of integrated math and EF activities on children’s EF (d=.15), but not math skills (d=.06). Given the promise of these activities outside of the classroom, we refined them to include a wider range of math topics and skills (12 total activities; see Table 1 for examples). The goal of this study was to test the feasibility of this integrated EF/math approach with 10 Head Start teachers and four instructional coaches.
In September, coaches and teachers rated their confidence in teaching math, were trained on math learning following the developmental trajectory approach (Sarama & Clements, 2009), and were also educated on what “EF skills” were. Weekly from October to December, the PI and coaches modeled the math/EF activities for the teachers, and in January, teachers filled out a survey to assess their understanding of the EF and math skill development within each activity, and then began implementing the activities on their own. In March, teachers received at least one fidelity of implementation observation and completed another survey to assess their understanding of the activities. Teachers and coaches virtually participated in an interview with the PI to assess strengths and weaknesses of the coaching and content (see Table 2).
Compared to pre-coaching, 7 out of 10 teachers reported that their confidence in teaching math improved significantly. Prior to implementing activities on their own (January), teachers were not adept at articulating how EF was integrated into four randomly selected activities (M=1.4 out of 4), and this did not substantially improve post-coaching (April; M=1.9). Most teachers, however, substantially improved in their articulation of the progression of math skills of each activity (M=1.9 – M=2.9, out of 4). In observed fidelity of implementation of the math/EF activities, however, the reverse phenomenon was observed where 8 teachers implemented the EF portion of the activity fully, whereas only 4 teachers were able to start at the correct math skill level, and move children along to the next developmental level.
Overall, these findings highlight 1) the promise of integrating math and EF instruction in preschool, 2) how we should rethink the coaching of EF to make it more accessible and digestible for teachers, and 3) how to improve coaching for teachers scaffolding children through different levels of a math activity, particularly for the children of the lowest math ability.

Authors

• Lillie Moffett, None
  Presenting Author

• Rosa Valdes, LAUP
  Non-Presenting Author