Cooperation between preschool peers in relation to their math learning

Abstract

Although early childhood education emphasizes peer learning opportunities, adults, including early childhood teachers, often underestimate preschoolers’ abilities to participate in cooperative interactions. Within the empirical literature, cooperative learning among young peers remains poorly understood. This research aims to help build the knowledge base on peers and learning in early childhood. Seventy-two preschool children participated in a study designed to target numeric and counting skills through early learning games. In dyads, the children completed game sessions across three weeks with sessions video-recorded and coded for peer cooperation. Average rates of occurrence, and variations therein, of dyads’ peer cooperative behaviors during game play were examined. The children’s math skills were also assessed prior to the first game play session and after the sixth session. The results showed that the preschoolers demonstrated all peer cooperative behaviors of interest, and preliminary evidence that dyads’ supportive behaviors were associated with post-test counting scores was found.