Exploring young children's performance on and acceptance of an educational scenario-based digital game for teaching route-planning strategies: a case study

Researchers suggest that game-based learning (GBL) can be used to facilitate mathematics learning. However, empirical GBL research that targets young children is still limited. The purposes of the study is to develop a scenario-based digital game to promote children's route-planning ability, to empirically explore children's learning performance in route planning through the game, and to probe children's technology acceptance of the game. A total of 71 children participated in the study, and both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used, including an interview analysis as well as performance and content analyses of learners’ route-planning tasks. The findings showed that the game had a positive effect on children's learning of route-planning strategies, that children's route-planning strategies were improved with the support of the game, and that children demonstrated high technology acceptance toward the game. This study may be of importance in offering insight into children's GBL.     

Developing an Assessment Stance in Primary Art Education in England

Many English primary teachers find the notion of assessing children's work in art difficult. This paper reports on work carried out with non‐art‐specialist primary teachers’ and student teachers’ use of a three‐point assessment model and related tasks, which supported teachers and students to engage critically with children's development, or lack of it, in observational drawing. This enabled teachers and students to develop appropriate planning and differentiated strategies for children's work in art. Equally important is that in engaging with these assessment tasks they were able to develop aspects of the critical language needed for teaching and learning in art.     

Supporting higher levels of reflection among teacher candidates: a pedagogical framework

An integrated mathematics and science methods course was designed to focus on the knowledge, skills, and beliefs of teacher candidates. Teacher candidates were involved in experiences that would prompt them to consider the influence of their experiences on their beliefs, the influence of their beliefs on their instructional decisions and the impact of those decisions on their effectiveness as teachers. Three teacher candidates who exhibited high levels of reflection and who made significant changes in the ways that they thought about mathematics and the teaching/learning process were chosen for study. Two themes related to this cognitive change emerged: a more complex, sophisticated understanding of the nature of mathematics; and an increased focus on children's thinking to guide instruction. Three program components having a major impact on these students' reconceptualization were reflection on past experiences, engagement in mathematical problem‐solving and opportunities to act on new beliefs.     

Playing Games and Learning Mathematics: The results of two intervention studies

This article presents the findings of two studies that were designed to improve young children's number knowledge through the use of mathematical games. The first study, with 5‐year‐old children (N = 55), involved parents coming into the classroom to play games with small groups of children. The second study, with 7‐year‐old children (N = 128), explored several ways of incorporating games into school mathematics programmes, including parents playing games with the children. Individual task‐based interviews were used to gather data on the children's number knowledge, and detailed observations were made of selected children's experiences during their normal mathematics lessons and while they were playing the mathematical games. The results showed that games appeared to be most effective as a way of enhancing children's learning when a sensitive adult was available to support and extend the children's learning as they played. The factors that appear to be important when involving parents in games sessions at school are discussed.     

“Doing the Math”: Maternal Beliefs About Early Mathematics Versus Language Learning

Research Findings: Little is known about how parents approach preschoolers' mathematics learning and how this aligns with early mathematics education research and policy. This study examined these questions by contrasting parents' approaches to early mathematics and language and by exploring key themes in parents' talk about mathematics learning and education. Consistent with current research and policy, parents reported helping preschoolers learn mathematics and attempting to connect this learning to children's interests and everyday experiences. However, parents admitted to lacking goals for and knowledge about early mathematics. In addition, compared to language, parents reported that mathematics was taught less often at home, should be emphasized less in preschools, was less interesting to preschoolers, required more direct instruction, and was less of a personal interest and strength. Practice or Policy: Parent interventions could capitalize on parents' beliefs and practices by providing parents with concrete examples of what mathematics preschoolers learn through daily activities, how to maximize children's mathematics interests, and what the similarities are between early mathematics and language. These efforts will also need to help parents overcome their mathematics anxieties and show parents why early mathematics education is important. Similar strategies could be used to help early childhood teachers improve their mathematics practice.     

Learning landscapes

This article explores the metaphor of learning landscapes, a tool developed in order to map children's experiences of, and attitudes to, learning (mathematics) before and after the transfer from primary to secondary school. Firstly, the continuing problems surrounding school transfer and why a re‐examination of this is required are considered. Secondly, as background to the metaphor, the sociocultural influences which impinge on educational processes are discussed. Following that, the core of the article develops the metaphor, seeking to demonstrate its pertinence to the study of children's schooling, the learning of mathematics and school transfer. The article also questions the potential of some of the current educational reforms to deliver sustained improvement.     

The role of positive peer interactions and English exposure in Spanish-speaking preschoolers’ English vocabulary and letter-word skills

We examined the extent to which positive interactions with peers and the amount of English exposure received from them during social interactions in the fall of preschool contributed to low-income Spanish-speaking children's (N = 107; M_age = 53 months; SD = 4.30 months; 56% boys) English vocabulary and letter-word skills in the spring (controlling for parents’ language use, family income, number of English books at home, and children's nonverbal cognitive abilities). We also examined the mediating roles of children's learning behaviors (e.g., attentiveness, independence, initiative, persistence, and participation) and English oral proficiency in the classroom. The association between positive peer interactions and English vocabulary skills was mediated by children's English oral proficiency, whereas the association between positive peer interactions and English letter-word skills was mediated by children's learning behaviors and English oral proficiency. The associations among peer English exposure and children's English vocabulary and letter-word skills were mediated by children's English oral proficiency. There was also evidence of a transactional association between positive peer interactions and children's learning behaviors and between peers’ and children's English oral proficiency. The findings highlight the importance of peer experiences in fostering Spanish-speaking preschoolers’ English vocabulary and letter-word skills.     

Impacts of a Prekindergarten Program on Children's Mathematics,Language, Literacy,Executive Function,and Emotional Skills

Publicly funded prekindergarten programs have achieved small‐to‐large impacts on children's cognitive outcomes. The current study examined the impact of a prekindergarten program that implemented a coaching system and consistent literacy, language, and mathematics curricula on these and other nontargeted, essential components of school readiness, such as executive functioning. Participants included 2,018 four and five‐year‐old children. Findings indicated that the program had moderate‐to‐large impacts on children's language, literacy, numeracy and mathematics skills, and small impacts on children's executive functioning and a measure of emotion recognition. Some impacts were considerably larger for some subgroups. For urban public school districts, results inform important programmatic decisions. For policy makers, results confirm that prekindergarten programs can improve educationally vital outcomes for children in meaningful, important ways.     

Comparing the use of the empty number line in England and the Netherlands

Efforts to meet the needs of children's learning in arithmetic has led to an increased emphasis on the teaching of mental calculation strategies in England. This has included the adoption of didactical tools such as the empty number line (ENL) that was developed as part of the realistic mathematics movement in the Netherlands. It has been claimed that the English use of the ENL differs from that of the Dutch. In this study curriculum guidance materials are examined to investigate these differences. Two examples of teaching sequences are provided to illustrate them further. It is proposed that the different uses stem from different pedagogical principles. The implications of the English use are discussed in relation to the presentation of mental calculation strategies in an algorithmic way.     

Numerical Magnitude Representations and Individual Differences in Children's Arithmetic Strategy Use

Against the background of neuroimaging studies on how the brain processes numbers, there is now converging evidence that numerical magnitude representations are crucial for successful mathematics achievement. One major drawback of this research is that it mainly investigated mathematics performance as measured through general standardized achievement tests. We extended this research by investigating the association between numerical magnitude representations and children's strategy use during single‐digit arithmetic. Our findings reveal that children's symbolic but not nonsymbolic numerical magnitude processing skills are associated with individual differences in arithmetic. Children with better access to magnitude representations from symbolic digits retrieve more facts from their memory and are faster in executing fact retrieval as well as procedural strategies. These associations remain even when intellectual ability, digit naming, and general mathematics achievement are additionally controlled for. All this indicates that particularly the access to numerical meaning from Arabic symbols is key for children's arithmetic strategy development, which suggests that educators and remedial teachers should focus on connecting Arabic symbols to the quantities they represent.     

Parents' representations of their children's mathematics learning in multiethnic primary schools

There is a growing concern that governmental calls for parental involvement in children's school mathematics learning have not been underpinned by research. In this article the authors aim to offer a contribution to this debate. Links between children's home and school mathematical practices have been researched in sociocultural studies, but the origins of differences within the same cultural group are not well understood. The authors have explored the notion that parents' representations of school mathematics and associated practices at home may play a part in the development of these differences. This article reports an analysis of interviews with parents of 24 children of Pakistani and White origin enrolled in primary schools in England, including high and low achievers in school mathematics. The extent to which the parents represented their own school mathematics and their child's school mathematics as the ‘same’ or ‘different’ are examined. In addition, ways in which these representations influenced how they tried to support their children's learning of school mathematics are examined. The article concludes with reflections on the implications of the study for education policy.     

Cognitive training for children: Effects on inductive reasoning,deductive reasoning,and mathematics achievement in an Australian school setting

Inductive reasoning is a core cognitive process of fluid intelligence, predicting a variety of educational outcomes. The Cognitive Training for Children (CTC) program is an educational intervention designed to develop children's inductive reasoning skills, with previous investigations finding substantial effects of the program on both inductive reasoning ability and classroom learning. The present study assessed both individual and small‐group CTC training against a no‐treatment control condition to investigate the effects on inductive and deductive reasoning and mathematics achievement in a primary school‐aged Australian cohort. Students who received individual training outperformed those in the control condition on measures of inductive and deductive reasoning, and those in the small‐group condition also outperformed the control condition on a measure of inductive reasoning 3 months following training. However, hypotheses regarding transfer effects to mathematics achievement were not supported. Directions for future research, focusing on extended longitudinal studies and motivational variables, are discussed.     

Parental involvement,children's aspirations,and achievement in new immigrant families

The authors investigated the relationships among multiple aspects of parental involvement (English proficiency, school involvement, control and monitoring of children), children's aspirations, and achievement in new immigrant families in the United States. They used data on immigrant parents and school-age children (N = 1,255) from the New Immigrant Survey to examine immigrant families from diverse backgrounds. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that parental English proficiency and involvement in school education are related to children's academic achievement, cognitive development, and English language ability, directly as well as indirectly, through children's educational aspirations. Parental control and monitoring is not beneficial to immigrant children's cognitive development, although variations were found across different groups. They also observed intriguing findings regarding gender and racial or ethnic diversity. Based on their findings, they provide recommendations for the fostering of academic success and the design and implementation of educational programs and practices for immigrant children.     

Video diary: a method for exploring learning dispositions

This paper presents an innovative method for qualitative research in education. The video dairy technique was developed and used alongside other qualitative methods to map the socio‐cultural landscape of primary‐school children's learning dispositions prior to their transfer to secondary school. The larger project comprised a case study of a group of children transferring from one Year 6 classroom to their local comprehensive secondary school, with particular reference to their learning of mathematics. Theoretically framed by Pierre Bourdieu's sociological tools, the study explored the impact of three fields—school, family and peer group—upon children's learning dispositions and trajectories at this school interface. The alternative perspectives afforded by the diary entries highlighted the inter‐relatedness of the three fields of interest, often in ways that had not been anticipated or considered. I will explain practical aspects of the process and consider some of the challenges that might be experienced by researchers using video diary techniques.     

Development and evaluation of a case‐based digital learning tool about children's mathematical thinking for elementary school teachers (L‐TEST)

It is important for teachers of mathematics to know how pupils react to certain mathematical situations and what these reactions imply, in order to design more effective instructional environments based on their learning needs. This study reports the development processes of a digital learning tool (Learning Tool for Elementary School Teachers (L‐TEST)) that shows children's mathematical thinking for the ages of 4–11 years across certain problem situations. L‐TEST is designed as a support tool to be used in teacher education. A case‐based instructional model was used in designing the instructional tool. Video recordings were digitised to provide a rich environment where learners observe exemplary cases. These exemplified videos included children's mathematical development in the subjects of numbers and shapes, combined with discussions in line with the current research findings. Finally, a usability test for the learning tool was carried out.     

Two-way and monolingual English immersion in preschool education: An experimental comparison

An experimental study was conducted comparing the effects of dual language, or two-way immersion (TWI) and monolingual English immersion (EI) preschool education programs on children's learning. Three-and four-year old children were randomly assigned by lottery to either a newly established TWI Spanish/English program or a monolingual English program in the same district. Children in the study were from both Spanish and English home language backgrounds. All classrooms in the study used the High/Scope curriculum, and all met high standards for teacher qualifications, ratio, and class size. The TWI program alternated between English and Spanish weekly by rotating children between two classrooms (and teachers) each week. Programs were compared on measures of children's growth in language, emergent literacy, and mathematics. Children in both types of classrooms experienced substantial gains in language, literacy, and mathematics. No significant differences between treatment groups were found on English language measures. Among the native Spanish speakers, the TWI program produced large gains in Spanish vocabulary compared to the EI program. Both TWI and EI approaches boosted the learning and development of children including ELL students, as judged by standard score gains. TWI also improved the Spanish language development of English language learners (ELL) and native English speaking children without losses in English language learning.     

Relations Among Cultural Learning Beliefs,Self‐Regulated Learning,and Academic Achievement for Low‐Income Chinese American Adolescents

This mixed‐methods study of urban low‐income, English‐proficient Chinese American, second‐generation 15‐year‐olds (conducted in 2004; N = 32) examined the relation among the virtue model of learning communicated by parents and adolescents’ learning beliefs, self‐regulated learning (SRL) behaviors, and academic achievement. Analysis of in‐depth individual interviews revealed that for these adolescents, perceptions of family educational socialization predicted students’ endorsement of their culture's virtue‐oriented learning beliefs and that adolescents’ endorsement of these learning beliefs predicted their academic achievement. Importantly, adolescents’ reported that use of SRL strategies mediated the relationship between their endorsement of virtue‐oriented learning beliefs and their academic achievement. Findings are discussed in the context of further research linking cultural learning beliefs, SRL, and children's academic achievement.     

School closures and educational attainment in Ethiopia: Can extra classes help children to catch up?

School closures impact children's attainment adversely, but understanding the effects of closures on children's attainment in lower-income countries is still limited. Addressing this deficit, this study examines how past school closures have impacted children's educational attainment in Ethiopia. The study uses individual student-level data from the Young Lives School Survey and standardised test scores in mathematics and language recorded at the start and end of the school year to model children's attainment. Multiple regression with propensity score matching is used to analyse how attainment over the school year is impacted by school closures for a matched sub-sample of 4842 students. The effectiveness of additional classes to make up for lost learning is also evaluated. Past school closures have had a detrimental effect on attainment in mathematics, but not literacy. Extra classes, specifically those that families do not pay for, have helped children in the past to recuperate lost learning and could serve this function post-Covid-19. Inequalities in learning outcomes, measured by Gini coefficients in educational attainment, are widened by school closures. Applying these results to the extensive school closures under Covid-19 furthers our understanding of the likely effects on academic attainment and can inform policy to mitigate the impact.     

The role of a children's mathematical thinking experience in the preparation of prospective elementary school teachers

Historically, content preparation and pedagogical preparation of teachers in California have been separated. Recently, in integrating these areas, many mathematics methodology instructors have incorporated children's thinking into their courses, which are generally offered late in students’ undergraduate studies. We have implemented and studied a model for integrating mathematical content and children's mathematical thinking earlier, so that prospective elementary school teachers (PSTs) engage with children's mathematical thinking while enrolled in their first mathematics course. PSTs’ work with children in the Children's Mathematical Thinking Experience (CMTE) may enhance their mathematical learning. Preliminary study results indicate that the sophistication of CMTE students’ beliefs about mathematics, teaching, and learning increased more than the sophistication of beliefs held by students enrolled in a reform-oriented early field experience and that experiences considering children's mathematical thinking provided PSTs with increased motivation for learning mathematics.     

Parental influences on primary school children's mathematics achievement: insights from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

Results from international mathematics tests are focussing the attention of national leaders on the learning of mathematics in the primary years. With this attention, comes the need to explore the factors that contribute to and impede this learning. Though much of this focus is on classroom practices, it is timely to examine the important influence that parents have on their children's achievement. This paper reports on a secondary analysis of data from a large longitudinal study in Australia; in particular, the effectiveness of Australian parents’ involvement in their children's homework. The results suggest that the actual help with homework has, on average, a negative effect on children's achievement even after controlling for earlier achievement. Significantly, however, the other types of involvement, such as provision of a good home environment, have positive effects on achievement. The implications of these findings are also discussed.