Adults' beliefs about children and mathematics: how important is it and how do children learn about it?

Abstract

A series of studies was conducted which focused on US adults' beliefs about the relative importance of acquiring mathematical skills for preschool children and about how children acquire these skills. In Study 1, adults rated general information, reading and social skills as all being more important than mathematical skills. They also claimed that parents have the most influence on preschool children's learning regardless of content area. In Study 2, the parents of kindergarten children also rated reading, general information and social skills as all being more important than mathematics in preparing children for the first grade. The more important parents felt mathematics were, the more they reported engaging in a variety of mathematical-related activities with their children. However, the importance they placed on mathematics was not related to their child's actual mathematical performance. In summary, adults seem to value mathematics less than other skills in preparing young children to enter elementary school. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: parents; beliefs; mathematicsMore and more attention has been paid to parental beliefs, attributions and attitudes about cognitive development and their possible influence in shaping the social context of the child (Stratton, 1988;Goodnow and Collins, 1990;Murphey, 1992;Miller, 1995). Parents' beliefs have been shown to be connected to their behaviors in the area of children's cognitive development (Miller, 1995). Recently Pelligrini and Stanic (1993) have claimed that children's mathematical development takes place in a niche, shaped not only by physical factors but also by social factors, such as the customs of child care and the psychology of caregivers. The possible influence of social factors on mathematical development is an especially important issue for psychologists in the US given the frequently reported poor performance of US children in mathematics, starting as early as the first grade (Bacon and Ichikawa, 1988;Stevenson et al., 1990 L. Musun-Miller and B. Blevins-Knabe 192 Ginsburg et al. (1992) examined several possible explanations for the poor performance of US children in mathematics -including differences in cognitive abilities, schooling practices and academic socialization practices. They argued that while school instruction plays an important role in children's mathematical achievement, it is not sufficient to explain the variability one finds in educational achievement and the feelings and attitudes, primarily negative, that children have toward the subject. They emphasize the importance of academic socialization by parents-which is turn is influenced by the beliefs, values and expectations that parents have toward their children's performance in school, as well as other factors, such as parents' own experiences with and feelings about mathematics. While they review several studies that focus on Asian and US parents' attitudes about academic success in general, they conclude that very little is known about the academic socialization of ...

How Do Parents Support Preschoolers’ Numeracy Learning Experiences at Home?

“…It is further proposed that parents' personal experiences will be related to children's early numeracy exposure (e.g., Huntsinger et al 2000;Musun-Miller and Blevins-Knabe 1998). Since it is often the case that parental behavior is consistent with underlying beliefs and expectations (e.g., LeFevre et al 2002), it was expected that those parents who reported positive mathematics experiences may be more capable and willing to share enriched numeracy experiences with their children than those parents with less optimal experiences, thus impacting children's numeracy scores.…”

“…Most work in the home numeracy area has relied on parental reports and questionnaire data (e.g., Musun-Miller and Blevins-Knabe 1998;LeFevre et al 2009c); but with demand characteristics and expectations, it is difficult to ascertain whether parental reports are consistent with behavior. This study extends research by tapping directly into parent behavior and asking them to use diaries to record mathematical interactions, and be videotaped during a laboratory play session.…”

“…Consistent with other work (Musun-Miller and Blevins-Knabe 1998;LeFevre 2009b, c), it is expected that they will view numeracy tasks as being less important than reading and other literacy activities.…”

Students' engagement in school and family variables: A literature review

“…The children whose parents believed in their mathematics abilities had better results in that subject. Perhaps, due to their positive views, parents provided more challenging tasks and opportunities for mathematics problems solving (Musun-Miller & Blevins-Knabe, 1998). Another hypothesis proposed by Aunola et al (2003) is that parents who realistically believe in their children's mathematics abilities are, themselves, proficient in that domain and, therefore, exhibit positive attitudes towards mathematics (Huntsinger, Jose, Liaw, & Ching, 1997).…”

Examination of children decision making using clues during the logical reasoning process

“…In this context, in the analysis of the educational status and occupation of the children's parents and the results of the observation evaluations found that there was a significant difference in favor of the children of the families who had high educational status and who were civil servants. The educational level of the family affects the aspects and attitudes toward mathematics and the quality of the mathematical activities offered to the child at home (Clements and Sarama, 2007;Musun-Miller and Blevins-Knabe, 1998). In the study of mathematical achievements of children attending kindergarten by Çelik (2015), the educational levels of parents and the level of income of their families were found to affect children's mathematical achievements.…”