The Effects of Children’s Literature on Preservice Early Childhood Mathematics Teachers’ Thinking

Abstract

In this article, the author shares an intervention of using children’s literature as a pedagogical frame for an undergraduate mathematics content course with early childhood education majors to influence their thinking about mathematics teaching and learning. With this case study of 29 preservice teachers, the author found that literature increased preservice elementary teachers’ excitement about mathematics, heightened their self-efficacy in mathematics, and motivated them to design innovative mathematics lessons. By elaborating on these findings, the author makes a case for the continued need for mathematically competent teachers in elementary classroom spaces, and the author advocates for the incorporation of literature as a means to do this work. Finally, the author provides implications for future research and practice with other SoTL-related projects involving children’s literature.

An Evaluation of The Preservice-Teacher Training for Children’s Literature and Mathematics Integration

“…Hence, pre-service teachers may have had more positive beliefs in terms of mathematics teaching self-efficacy beliefs. Studies also enlightened those pre-service and in-service teachers' understanding and beliefs regarding training may be changed, their self-efficacy towards mathematics increases, they are more motivated to use innovative approaches for mathematics lessons and their anxiety about teaching mathematics decreases when effectively designed educational content is provided (Ginsburg & Uscianowski, 2017;Jao, 2018;Jett, 2018;Lane & Ríordáin, 2020;Rogers et al, 2015). From this point of view, these kinds of training may be suggested for teacher education to integrate mathematics and children's literature.…”

“…The literature shows that integrated lessons support not only students but also teachers. Studies revealed that teachers' self-efficacy towards mathematics increases by virtue of integrated mathematics lessons, they are motivated to use innovative approaches to mathematics lessons, and their mathematics teaching anxiety decreases (Ginsburg & Uscianowski, 2017;Jett, 2018). But it is not very clear that an integration focused instruction's effect on pre-service teachers' mathematics teaching self-efficacy.…”

“…This approach allows considering individual differences in mathematics teaching by using children's books (Forbringer et al, 2016). Considered as teaching mathematics through children's books in the relevant literature, this approach benefits teachers and students in various ways (Edelman et al, 2019;Ginsburg & Uscianowski, 2017;Jett, 2018;Young & Marroquin, 2006). The integration of mathematics teaching and children's literature contributes to the connection of mathematical concepts with each other and with daily life (Columba et al, 2005), the introduction of mathematical concepts (Wallace et al, 2006), the concretization of abstract concepts (Barone, 2011), the development of mathematical language (Hassinger-Das et al, 2015), relieving mathematics anxiety through methods such as bibliotherapy (Furner, 2018;Green, 2013), increasing students' interest in mathematics (Luedtke & Sorvaag, 2018), changing the students' attitudes positively (Mink & Fraser, 2005), presenting a natural context for mathematical language (McDuffie & Young, 2003), developing problem-solving skills (Cankoy, 2011), differentiating teaching depending on students' needs (Forbringer, 2004;Forbringer et al, 2016), diagnosing and eliminating misconceptions (Courtade et al, 2013;Skoumpourdi & Mpakopoulou, 2011), and increasing academic achievement (Capraro & Capraro, 2006;Lemonidis & Kaiafa, 2019).…”

Count Me In: Exploring Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion through Mathematics and Children's Literature

“…A growing body of research on using culturally relevant resources and children's literature responsive to inequities of gender, race, and class supports rigorous mathematics instruction by including voices historically excluded from mathematics (Jett, 2018). Integrating language arts with mathematics provokes EDI discussion (Yilmaz & Topal, 2014; Zambo & Cleland, 2005), nurtures students' positive dispositions about mathematics (Hintz & Smith, 2022; Wilburne & Napoli, 2008), and helps ignite students' passion and imagination for thinking mathematically.…”

The Use of Literary Elements in Teaching Mathematics: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…The development of these views may have been influenced by investigations done mostly with young children and in the setting of mathematics (Edelman et al, 2019). Whereas using children's literary elements in mathematics teaching has many potentials in the context of teacher education (Can et al, 2020;Durmaz, 2022;Ginsburg & Uscianowski, 2017;Jett, 2018). Because this integration helps to increase teachers' self-efficacy in mathematics and encourages them to design innovative mathematics lessons (Jett, 2018), which is one of the important goals of a constructivist curriculum.…”