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…

Situational Perception in Mathematics (SPiM)—Results of a Cross-Country Study in Austria and Norway

Situation-specific skills, as situational perception, are a central part of educators’ competence. This is especially true for kindergarten teachers (KTs) as most of their teaching is based on natural learning situations. The aim of this study is to contribute to the discussion on KTs’ situational perception by identifying aspects of early childhood education students’ situational perception in mathematics. Therefore, we conducted a qualitative study with N = 5 students from Austria and N = 5 students from Norway. Data was collected through a video-based questionnaire: The students watched seven video vignettes and wrote down their observations and reflections immediately upon watching. Dat…

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…

Qualities of mathematical discourses in kindergartens

AbstractIn this study we investigated qualities of the mathematical discourse in four kindergarten classes in which kindergarten teachers and 5-year-old children engaged in mathematical learning activities. We analysed differences in the mathematical discourses in two experimental kindergarten classes and two control kindergarten classes, in a research and development project. The overarching research question guiding our study was as follows: what characterises the mathematical discourse unfolding in kindergarten classes? In our study we drew on the theoretical framework Mathematical Discourse in Instruction coined by Adler and Ronda, as we quantified the collected qualitative data. Our an…

Kindergarten teachers’ orchestration of mathematical activities afforded by technology: agency and mediation

This paper focuses on kindergarten teachers’ interactions with young children during mathematical learning activities involving the use of digital tools. We aim to characterise the teachers’ roles and actions in these activities and extend considerations of teachers’ orchestrations current in the research literature with regard to agency and mediation. Our analysis of teacher-children-digital tool interaction reveals that the kindergarten teachers took three roles in their work with young children, which we call Assistant, Mediator and Teacher roles. These roles were used interchangeably and purposefully by the kindergarten teachers. With regard to agency and mediation, we argue that agency…

CERME7 Working Group 13: Early Years mathematics

Teachers' implementation and orchestration of Cabri-use in mathematics teaching

- This thesis reports from a study of three teachers¿ first ever use of a particular computer software tool, Cabri, in teaching at two lower secondary schools in Norway. The thesis gives a characterisation of teachers¿ progression through a development process in which they implemented and orchestrated Cabri-use in their teaching. The study was situated within two developmental projects run by didacticians at the University of Agder. The teachers in the study participated in these projects together with a group of didacticians including the author of this thesis. Data were collected in sessions within this frame which included workshops at the University, visits to classrooms and computer l…

Children’s Engagement with Mathematics in Kindergarten Mediated by the Use of Digital Tools

The purpose of this chapter is to study children’s engagement with mathematics in kindergarten mediated by digital tools within the context of interactive whiteboard (IWB). Our study reports from a research project aiming at analysing in what ways digital tools may nurture children’s appropriation processes relative to mathematics. In adopting a sociocultural perspective on learning and development, observations together with video recordings have been analysed. Our study shows that the children make sense of the digital tools and are able to apply the tools purposefully due to the interaction with an adult within the zone of proximal development (ZPD). The children externalise their reason…

Kindergarten teachers’ accounts of their developing mathematical practice

Published version of an article in the journal: ZDM. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11858-012-0422-1 This study explores kindergarten teachers’ accounts of their developing mathematical practice in the context of their participation in a developmental research project. Observations and interviews were analysed to elaborate the accounts as regards orchestrating mathematical activities in the kindergarten. A co-learning agreement was established as collaboration between the kindergarten teachers and researchers. The study reveals that the kindergarten teachers argue that they have been empowered in developing an inquiry stance towards mathematics and mathemat…