Proposing and modifying guided play on shapes in mathematics teaching and learning for Zambian preschool children

Abstract

An increasing number of studies have discussed the development of early childhood education (ECE) programmes in different countries (Müller & Wittmann 2004a, 2004b South African Numeracy Chair Project 2016), the improvement of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (Lee 2017;McCray & Chen 2008) and their professional development (Warren & Quine 2013). Recent studies have revealed that children can engage in many mathematical practices, such as Background: Early childhood education (ECE) has recently been introduced in Zambian government schools, leading to a need to examine the quality of mathematics lessons.Aim: This study focussed on guided play lessons on shapes in pre-mathematics classes and examined how they could be implemented and what children could learn in the class. Setting:The lessons were conducted in two early childhood mathematics classes in two different schools in Zambia.Methods: A qualitative design-based research method was applied. For data collection, teachers implemented a trial lesson in one school and a main lesson in another school in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.Results: In the first lesson, the activity differed from what was planned and discussed. In the second lesson, the content and objective of the guided play were changed from those of the trial lesson. In the main lesson, children engaged in a more basic activity involving shapes and created many kinds of shapes that they were familiar with in and out of school. This was particularly effective for children in terms of explicitly learning the basic features of the shapes and important mathematical ideas such as congruency, similarity and symmetry. Conclusion:The main lesson was successful because the level of mathematical content was more appropriate for the children and allowed them to enjoy the activity. Two points regarding developing more effective lessons for ECE, to identify pupils' readiness and sociocultural status, were also assessed and discussed.

Learning through Play in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review

“…Through play in early Mathematic, Nordin and Romarzila (2022) lists several sections in prenumber concepts. The finding match with the sections in pre-number concepts which are identify skills (Nakawa, 2020), matching skills (Ramani & Scalise, 2020), comparing skills (Nakawa, 2020), organize skills (Vanbecelaere et al, 2020), reasoning skills (Outwaite et al, 2019, and skills of understanding the concept of numbers (Lange et al, 2021;Ramani et al, 2020). By the way, classify skills not found in the present studies.…”

“…We found that very few study examined on dimension of learning through play. Nakawa (2020) examined on guided play. This finding reflects there is very few studies towards dimension of learning through play.…”

“…In a different study, Nakawa (2020) presented that learning through play was uniquely effective for children in explicitly learning the basic features of shapes and important mathematical ideas such as congruency, similarity, and symmetry. Research findings by Ramani and Scalise (2020) also pointed out that shape and colour matching games have improved children's shape knowledge.…”

Playing Mathematics in Early Childhood Based on Semiotics

“…Informal mathematical activities should be undertaken for a solid foundation of mathematical concepts and skills for further education. In pre-mathematics ata mathematics for early childhood includes algebra, numbers, geometry, measurement, and commercial arithmetic (Nakawa, 2020).…”

“…Research related to playing mathematics and semiotics has been carried out by many previous researchers, including (Nakawa, 2020) the results of their research show that guided play is effective during the planned activities according to the child's socio-cultural background and readiness. From a curriculum development point of view, first, matching activities can be carried out when the child is accustomed to flexible form manipulation in the classroom.…”