Stimulating preschoolers’ focus on structure in repeating and growing patterns

Wijns, Nore; Verschaffel, Lieven; Smedt, Bert De; Keyser, Laure De; Torbeyns, Joke

doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101444

Cited by 19 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…Repeating patterning performance has even been related to growth in mathematical (Rittle-Johnson et al, 2019) and numerical ability (Wijns et al, 2021). This line of research has also shown that repeating patterning performance is malleable before the start of formal mathematics education in first grade (Flynn et al, 2020; Fyfe et al, 2015; Papic et al, 2011; Rittle-Johnson et al, 2015; Wijns, Verschaffel, De Smedt, De Keyser, & Torbeyns, 2021; Zippert et al, 2021).…”

Section: Children’s Repeating Patterning Abilitymentioning

confidence: 88%

“…This might explain why transfer effects toward other mathematical measures are found in studies in first grade (Kidd et al, 2013, 2014; Lüken & Kampmann, 2018; Pasnak et al, 2015) but not in preschool (Pasnak et al, 2019; Shriver et al, 2017; Wijns, Verschaffel, De Smedt, & Torbeyns, 2021; Zippert et al, 2021), and why a preschool patterning intervention yielded a positive impact on a numeracy measure in first grade (Papic et al, 2011). Further research on this matter seems necessary, for example by investigating immediate and delayed transfer effects of a preschool patterning intervention before and after formal mathematics instruction (Wijns, Verschaffel, De Smedt, De Keyser et al, 2021). Future research could also investigate what kind of mathematics instruction could optimally build on children’s patterning ability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, no inferential statistics were used to assess significance of these intervention effects, limiting the generalizability of the findings. Finally, Wijns, Verschaffel, De Smedt, De Keyser and Torbeyns (2021) developed a lesson series of 20 weeks with weekly 30 minutes of activities focusing on the structure of repeating and growing patterns for 5-year-olds. The intervention group outperformed a business-as-usual control group on patterning at posttest when controlling for patterning at pretest, with an effect size of d = .41.…”

Section: Children’s Repeating Patterning Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Strong support for a causal association between patterning and numerical ability is, however, still missing: The only patterning intervention study in which differences in numerical ability were found, did not use inferential statistics to confirm whether these differences were significant (Papic et al, 2011). Other, more recent patterning interventions before the start of formal schooling were not able to find significant differences in numerical ability at posttest (Wijns, Verschaffel, De Smedt, De Keyser Torbeyns, 2021;Zippert et al, 2021). Nevertheless, it has been suggested that the ability to identify the structure in repeating patterns might support the ability to identify similar regularities in numerical situations (e.g., the base-ten system of our number words in which the ones and the tens are repeated), which would in turn support further numerical development (Papic et al, 2011;Rittle-Johnson et al, 2019;Zippert et al, 2019).…”

Section: Repeating Patterning Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stimulating preschoolers’ repeating patterning ability by means of dialogic picture book reading.

Wijns¹,

Purpura²,

Torbeyns³

2023

Journal of Educational Psychology

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This study evaluates the effectiveness of a dialogic reading picture book intervention on preschoolers' repeating patterning ability. Ninety-four children age 4 years 1 month to 6 years 8 months (M age = 5 years 0 months) were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 46) or active control (n = 48) conditions. Well-trained university and college students read two researcher-designed picture books five times each over 3 weeks (i.e., 10 reading sessions) to small groups of three to five children. In the intervention condition, repeating patterns were present in the text and the illustrations, and the dialogic reading questions elicited patterning interactions. In the control condition, there were no references to patterns and the dialogic reading questions focused on content other than patterns or mathematics. A repeating patterning measure (including extending, generalizing, identifying the unit) and a numerical measure (including counting, number recognition, number order) were administered at pretest and at posttest. At posttest, differences in repeating patterning between both conditions were not significant when controlling for pretest performance and receptive vocabulary, despite a small effect size. When further exploring the differences on each of the patterning tasks separately, the intervention group outperformed the control group on extending but not on generalizing or unit identification. There were no significant transfer effects on the numerical measure. Overall, this study shows that reading picture books specially designed around patterning skills can stimulate young children's ability to extend repeating patterns. Picture books are a promising tool to support children's patterning ability, because they are easy to implement in several early learning environments. Educational Impact and Implications StatementChildren's repeating patterning ability is an important component of their early mathematical ability, but there is only little room for patterning activities in most early childhood educational settings. The present study suggests that reading picture books that focus on repeating patterns can be potentially used for stimulating 4-to 6-year-olds' ability to extend repeating patterns.

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Section: Children’s Repeating Patterning Abilitymentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Children’s Repeating Patterning Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Repeating Patterning Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Stimulating preschoolers’ repeating patterning ability by means of dialogic picture book reading.

Wijns¹,

Purpura²,

Torbeyns³

2023

Journal of Educational Psychology

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…A growing body of work supports a connection between patterning ability and math outcomes; most of this research has focused on preschoolers completing repeating patterns (Burgoyne, Malone, Lervag, & Hulme, 2019;Fyfe, Evans, Matz, Hunt, & Alibali, 2017;Nguyen et al, 2016;Rittle-Johnson, Zippert, & Boice 2019;Zippert, Clayback, & Rittle Johnson, 2019). Some work has also tested the relation between growing patterns and math achievement (Hendricks, Trueblood, & Pasnak 2006; Kidd et al, 2013;Kidd et al, 2014;Papic, Mulligan, & Mitchelmore, 2011;Pasnak et al, 2016;Lee, Ng, Bull, Pe, & Ho, 2011;Wijns, Verschaffel, De Smedt, De Keyser, & Torbeyns, 2021). Growing patterns may have specific implications for algebra (Lee et al, 2011;McGarvey, 2012;Stephens et al, 2017;Warren & Cooper, 2008) in part because they represent relations between input and output values.…”

Section: Patterning Math Achievement and Algebraic Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of figural and numerical presentation formats on growing pattern performance

et al. 2021

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Prior work exploring preschool-aged children’s reasoning with repeating patterns has shown that patterning ability is an important predictor of math achievement; however, there is limited research exploring older children’s growing pattern task performance. The current study tested whether presentation format impacts performance on growing pattern problems, and whether the effects of presentation format extend to transfer word problems for which no patterns are provided. Sixth grade students were randomly assigned to complete several growing pattern tasks in one of three presentation formats (figures, sequences of values, or tables of values), and later completed transfer story problems with no figures, sequences, or tables provided. Findings suggest that presenting growing patterns as figures can benefit performance, although these benefits may depend on both pattern type and task. No differences were observed in performance on transfer problems, likely because students rarely spontaneously generated figures. Additional exploratory analyses suggest that performance on growing pattern problems may be related to both standardized math ability and fraction task performance, whereas inhibitory control may only be related to performance for specific patterning tasks. These findings have implications for educators because describing/expressing patterns is critical to algebra and higher-level mathematics.

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Development and Stimulation of Early Core Mathematical Competencies in Young Children: Results from the Leuven Wis & C Project

Verschaffel

Smedt

Luwel

et al. 2023

Research in Mathematics Education

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Stimulating preschoolers’ focus on structure in repeating and growing patterns

Cited by 19 publications

References 50 publications

Stimulating preschoolers’ repeating patterning ability by means of dialogic picture book reading.

Stimulating preschoolers’ repeating patterning ability by means of dialogic picture book reading.

Effects of figural and numerical presentation formats on growing pattern performance

Development and Stimulation of Early Core Mathematical Competencies in Young Children: Results from the Leuven Wis & C Project

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