The Effects of a Structured Curriculum on Preschool Effectiveness: A Field Experiment

Abstract: This study tests an intervention that introduces a structured curriculum for five-year-olds into the universal preschool context of Norway, where the business as usual is an unstructured curriculum. We conduct a field experiment with 691 five-year-olds in 71 preschools and measure treatment impacts on children’s development in mathematics, language, and executive functioning. The nine-month intervention has effects on child development at post-intervention and the effects persist one year following the end of the treatment. The effects are mainly driven by the preschools identified as low-quality at baseline, indicating that a structured curriculum can reduce inequality in early c…

Student–teacher dialectic in the co-creation of a zone of proximal development: an example from kindergarten mathematics

This paper reports on a case study which explores the co-creation of a zone of proximal development (ZPD) in a mathematics teaching-learning activity in a Norwegian kindergarten. To capture the com...

Processes of mathematical inquiry in kindergarten

Abstraction and embodiment: exploring the process of grasping a general

AbstractThis paper reports from a case study which explores kindergarten children’s mathematical abstraction in a teaching–learning activity about reflection symmetry. From a dialectical perspective, abstraction is here conceived as a process, as a genuine part of human activity, where the learner establishes “a point of view from which the concrete can be seen as meaningfully related” (van Oers & Poland Mathematics Education Research Journal, 19(2), 10–22, 2007, p. 13–14). A cultural-historical semiotic perspective to embodiment is used to explore the characteristics of kindergarten children’s mathematical abstraction. In the selected segment, two 5-year-old boys explore the concept of…

Designing Playful Inquiry-Based Mathematical Learning Activities for Kindergarten

This study addresses issues related to the process of designing mathematical activities for kindergarten based on the constructs of playful learning and inquiry. The mathematical activities were designed for 5-year-old children in a Norwegian kindergarten setting. In order to address this design process, we focus at issues of mediating design principles and ideas to kindergarten teachers, who are the ones to orchestrate and implement the mathematical activities with children. The study is situated within a design research methodology in which observations, written and personal communication have been used as sources of data. Our analysis shows that the kindergarten teacher closely followed …

Promoting Child Development in a Universal Preschool System: A Field Experiment

This study tests an intervention that introduces a structured curriculum for five-year olds into the universal preschool context of Norway. We conduct a field experiment with 691 five-year-olds in 71 preschools and measure treatment impacts on children's development in mathematics, language and executive functioning. Compared to business as usual, the nine-month curriculum intervention has effects on child development at post-intervention and the effects persist one year following the end of the treatment. The effects are entirely driven by the preschool centers identified as low-quality at baseline, suggesting that a structured curriculum can reduce inequality in early childhood learning e…

Kindergarten children's argumentation in reflection symmetry: The role of semiotic means

International audience; In this paper I investigate the characteristics of children's argumentation when they work with reflection symmetry. Using Toulmin's (2003) model for substantial argumentation, I illuminate structural aspects of the ongoing argumentation. In addition, I analyse the children's argumentation with respect to their use of semiotic means. Results show that children are able to argue for a claim in a quite complex manner. The study also illustrates the extensive use of semiotic means in children's argumentation. In every element in the argumentative structure, children use gestures and other semiotic means to mediate their ideas. It is actually impossible to make sense of …

The Materialisation of Children’s Mathematical Thinking Through Organisation of Turn-Taking in Small Group Interactions in Kindergarten

This chapter reports from a case study which focuses on the coordination of turn-taking within two small groups of kindergarten children (age 5–6) working on addition problems. The two segments of small group interaction were analysed from a multimodal, interpretative perspective. Drawing on Radford’s (J Res Math Educ, 2:7–44, 2013) theory of knowledge objectification, the study explores the characteristics of children’s turn-taking and what role children’s organisation of turn-taking plays in the movement of the joint activity, and thus for the materialisation of their mathematical thinking. The findings suggest that children’s various ways of organising turn-taking give rise to different …