Enhancing Swedish Toddlers’ Learning Opportunities Through Interactions with Pictures and Narrative Designed for Numerical Learning Purposes

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this study is to deepen the understanding of how preschool teachers can use representations of different kinds to bring fore the mathematical content that may be afforded in pictures and narrative designed for numerical learning purposes. Seventy-three video documentations of reading sessions with 27 toddlers (1–3 years of age) over the course of three semesters were analyzed with a focus on number-oriented actions that, theoretically, would facilitate toddlers’ learning of numbers. In the reading sessions the teachers extended the content of the pictures and the narrative in different ways, and how one and the same picture was handled was shown to impact on what was made possible for the children to discern. Three different objects of learning—identifying numbers, comparing numbers, and operating on numbers—were made visible. Further, the use of gestures strengthened the possibility for the children to make connections within and between representations. This contributes to our understanding of the importance of using representations and gestures with a pedagogical purpose.