Mathematics for the future: developing a Head Start curriculum to support mathematics learning

While mathematics instruction for very young children needs to be age-appropriate in format and content, it also needs to prepare children conceptually for the kinds of mathematics learning that will be expected of them in future years. This perspective, informed by the work of Russian psychologists and educators on a measurement-based approach to early mathematics instruction e.g., V.V. Davydov, Children’s Capacity for Learning Mathematics, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, VA, pp. 109–205], was the basis for an experimental mathematics curriculum which focused on the concept of unit as it applies to enumeration, measurement, and the identification of relations among geometric shapes. The curriculum particularly emphasized two ideas about units that derive from a measurement perspective: first, that the numerical result we obtain from counting or other measurement operations will depend on our choice of a unit; and second, that units of one kind can be combined to form higher-order units or taken apart to form lower-order ones. The curriculum included a weekly project activity conducted by the Head Start teachers, suggestions for supplementary activities, and a weekly home activity for a parent or other family member to carry out with the child. It was implemented with children in three Head Start centers (N=46; age range 2 years, 9 months–4 years, 7 months at the beginning of the program). To evaluate the curriculum, two assessment instruments (the mathematics subscale of the DSC and a supplementary instrument constructed especially for this study) were administered, at the beginning and again at the end of the school year, to these children and to two comparison groups. One comparison group (N=48; age range 2 years, 6 months–4 years, 7 months) received a literacy intervention rather than a mathematics one; the other (N=29; age range 2 years, 8 months–4 years, 7 months) did not receive any experimental intervention. Results showed significant, albeit modest, positive effects of the intervention. The importance of reexamining current beliefs about what is possible—and desirable—within a preschool mathematics curriculum is emphasized.