Pre-Service Early Childhood Educators' Perceptions of Math-Mediated Language

Abstract

This study argues that maximizing early childhood educators' abilities to create social opportunities for co-construction of knowledge rests on two understudied assumptions, one theoretical and one empirical. Theoretically this study rejects the notion of language as an impartial conveyor of knowledge in favor of one in which math and language interact. This alternative framework is termed MathMediated Language (MML) and argues that the perception of common terms that adults possess is an important part of the knowledge that practitioners possess about linking conceptually related linguistic and mathematical knowledge. Empirical findings from a survey recording participants' reactions to seven categories of terms with mathematical meanings and three categories of distracter terms were analyzed. The data indicated that when asked to think about math, practitioners more readily accessed words for operation terms than relational terms. Additionally, participants demonstrated stronger tendencies toward additive terms conveying addition or subtraction concepts over multiplicative ones conveying multiplication or division concepts. The findings point to patterns in the ways that participants view mathematical language demonstrating that language interacts with even simple interpretations of basic mathematical terminology. The implications of this are that practitioners interpretations of everyday language may influence their ability to see opportunities for teaching mathematical concepts not only in the context of an explicit math lesson but throughout the broader early childhood curriculum.

Mathematics Education for Young Children: What It is and How to Promote It

“…During free play, teachers spend very little time with children (Seo & Ginsburg, 2004) or tend only to manage their behavior (Kontos, 1999). Teachers do not appear to be suffi ciently knowledgeable to see the opportunity for teaching a range of mathematical concepts in everyday situations (Moseley, 2005). In brief, teachers seldom attempt to exploit teachable moments, and even if they did, it's hard to see how they could effectively keep track of and productively respond to the haphazard occurrences of teachable moments in 20 or so young children, especially from diverse backgrounds (Hyun & Marshall, 2003).…”

Early Childhood Teachers' Misconceptions about Mathematics Education for Young Children in the United States

“…That is, they learn that terms and expressions such as 'altogether', 'put together', and 'in all' are often used to indicate addition; that 'how many are left? ', 'take away', and 'the difference between' are often used to indicate subtraction; and that 'equal shares' and 'share equally' are often used to indicate division (Moseley, 2005). Mathematical words are so pervasive in everyday life and so deep in the core of human cognition that they are not usually thought of as belonging to mathematics.…”

Myths of Early Math

“…Most teachers have a difficult time engaging children in tasks at their mathematical level [41]. Most teachers do not have applicable mathematics language and concepts at the ready, such as relational terms in mathematics [39,42]. Finally, even if professional development could address all of these issues, it is unrealistic for any teacher to see opportunities for multiple children to build multiple concepts consistently over the year [39].…”