Nurturing Mathematical Mindsets: Promoting Preschoolers’ Mastery Motivation, and Mathematical Thinking
Jessica Young, Research Scientist Kristen Reed, Senior Project DirectorSeptember 19, 2017
Agenda• Introductions: Who’s in the Room?
• Mathematical Mindsets—why are they important?
• What does developmentally appropriate math look like in the early childhood classroom?
• What can we do to promote this in our work?
Nurturing Mathematical Mindsets
Nurturing Mathematical Mindsets | edc.org
Which book title best describes
your experience as a learner of mathematics?
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How do we want children to experience being a learner of mathematics?
Teachers feelings about math influence children’s learning• The level of anxiety held by women elementary teachers
was found to predict the achievement of the girls in their classes, but not the boys.
• In addition, girls were more likely to hold the commonly held stereotype that “boys are good at math, and girls are good at reading” if they were in a classroom with a teacher who had more anxiety around math.
Beilock, Gunderson, Ramirez, & Levine (2009) & Beilock et al. (2010)
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Preschool teachers’ math anxiety relates to math learning• Classrooms where teachers who had higher levels of math anxiety, girls
made smaller gains in math, relative to girls in classrooms where teachers had lower levels of math anxiety.1
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1Young et al., 2017; 2Bussey and Bandura 1984
• Girls may be more likely to notice and be influenced by their female teachers’ math attitudes because of their identification with their teacher as a role model of the same gender2
Early math . . . Matters!
• This finding held for both boys and girls and for children from high and low SES backgrounds.
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1Duncan et al., 2007
• Early mathematics understanding prior to school entry significantly predicts later school achievement over and abovereading skills and even attention skills1.
Mathematics knowledge and later school success
Kindergarteners’ math skills in pattern recognition, measurement, and advanced number sense were most predictive of 8th-grade outcomes.
Claessens & Engel (2013)
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Children from low-income backgrounds start school at a disadvantage
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1Case, Griffin, & Kelly, 1999; Duncan et al., 2007; 2Alexander & Entwisle, 1988; Geary, 1994, 2007
• On average, children from low-income backgrounds enter school and achieve at a much lower level than their higher-income peers, and this pattern persists throughout the course of school.2
• They are less likely to experience high-quality, meaningful opportunities to engage with mathematical concepts at home and in preschool settings than their middle-class middle-class peers.1
Early math skills are critical to school success
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1Achieve, 2008; Adelman, 1999, 2006; Gaertner, et al., 2014; 2 Duncan & Magnuson, 2011; 3Reardon, 2013
• Success in math is linked to high school graduation, college enrollment and completion, and workforce preparation.1
• Crucially, math knowledge at school entry was the single most powerful predictor determining whether a student would graduate from high school and attend college.2
• The most effective strategy to reduce the opportunity gap is to devote more resources and effort in preschool, and specifically mathematics.3
Children are Born Mathematicians!• Well before kindergarten, children naturally engage in mathematical ways
of thinking in the areas of number, geometry, measurement, algebraic thinking, and data analysis. 1
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1Hachey, 2013; Sarama & Clements, 2009; 2 Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity (2009)
• National Research Council’s study 2 concluded that young children have the capacity and interest to learn meaningful mathematics, but children need “adult support to build and extend their early knowledge and learn to focus on and elaborate the mathematical aspects of everyday situations—to mathematize” (p.334).
But how do we promote children’s math knowledge in developmentally appropriate ways?
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Hint:It’s not flashcards.
Numbers, Numbers, 1, 2, 3. How many do you see?
*Drawings of hands by Melody Hinchey, EDC
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If we want children to do better in math…Encourage them to use their fingers!
• When children use their fingers to think about a number, they develop a representation of that number in their brains.
• Brain science suggests that using your fingers for math is essential for developing strong mathematical concepts.
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Let’s Play a Game: Quick Images
We’ll do 3 cards then we’ll talk about what you saw:
1. Flash a card for 1 second.
2. As quickly as you can, show with your fingers the number of dots you see.
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These cards are harder than we’d suggest you use with preschool children―at least at first!
Which arrangement of dots was the hardest? Which was the easiest?
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Nurturing Mathematical Mindsets | edc.org
Nurturing mathematical mindsets: Fostering mastery motivation
What is mastery motivation?
• Two children are playing a math game. Both get stuck. But while one gives up, the other tries different approaches until she gets an answer.
• In early childhood, this is known as mastery motivation: Is a child’s independent persistence to accomplish
moderately challenging tasks Can be different between children Is malleable or changeable—teachers can influence it!
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Why is mastery motivation important?• Mastery motivation is related to
school readiness skills• Children with higher mastery
motivation have been found to have higher math outcomes and academic achievement
• Greater social competence and learning-related behaviors
• Higher engagement in learning activities
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Can we help children improve their mastery motivation? • Yes! It is influenced by social interaction.• Children have greater mastery motivation when Are exposed to challenging materials Receive positive feedback Are allowed autonomy Receive “one-step ahead” scaffolded support during challenging
activities Receive praise for effort or persistence, not for how smart they are
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Judi Taylor, Alds Street Child Development Center, Nashua, NH
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Watch the video: https://youtu.be/4tWDbNVWIKQ
What does this look like in the classroom?Teachers…• Provide many different types of challenging
activities • Give children positive feedback • Give children freedom to make their own
choices and • Don’t interfere with their problem-solving
process• Provide “gentle guidance”
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Grace Tollick, Greater Lawrence Community Action Council Head Start
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Watch the video: https://youtu.be/oGzSgYLcASM
Reaction to video: Table discussion
What is your reaction to this video?
What ideas can we take away from Judi and Grace’s experience to bring to our own contexts?
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How can we support teachers?
• Strong instructional materials• Lots of support from administration and colleagues• Ongoing professional development• Foster a learning culture for children and teachers• Addressing teachers mathematics anxiety
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Tara Fitzgibbons, Greater Lawrence Community Action Council Head Start
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Watch the video: https://youtu.be/j6gB4sYHNGY
Reflection and table discussion
Think back on the session, what is one idea that resonated with you?
What is one thing that you will do when you get back to your context?
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On chart paper please note…
1) One Great Idea that I Learned…
2) One Thing I Will Do…
3) One Way that We Could Have Made the Session More Effective…
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ReferencesAlexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Blythe, D. A., & McAdoo, H. P. (1988). Achievement in the first 2 years of school: Patterns and processes. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 53(2), 1–157.
Beilock, S. L., Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., & Levine, S. C. (2010). Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(5), 1860–1863. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910967107
Case, R., Griffin, S., & Kelly, W. (1999). Socioeconomic gradients in mathematical ability and their responsiveness to intervention during early childhood. In D. Keating & C. Hertzman (Ed.), Developmental health and the wealth of nations: Social, biological, and educational dynamics (pp. 125–149). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Claessens, A., & Engel, M. (2013). How important is where you start? Early mathematics knowledge and later school success. Teachers College Record, 115(6).
Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C. J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A. C., Klebanov, P., Pagan, L. S., Feinstein, L., Engel, M., Brooks-Gunn, J., Sexton, H., Duckworth, K., & Japel, C. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1428–1446.
Geary, D. C. (1994). Children’s mathematical development: Research and practical applications. Worcester, MA: American Psychological Association.
Geary, D. C. (2007). An evolutionary perspective on learning disability in mathematics. Developmental Neuropsychology, 32(1), 471–519.
Grissmer, D. (2015). Predicting 8th-grade math and reading from Kindergarten skills. Presented at the The Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Washington, D.C.
Weisberg, D. S., Kittredge, A. K., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M., & Klahr, D. (2015). Making play work for education. Phi Delta Kappan, 96(8), 8-13.
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THANK YOUJessica [email protected]
Kristen [email protected]
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