Abstract
In the fall, kindergartners from 21 classrooms in four urban schools were randomly formed into trios and taught either mathematics or early literacy or social studies, or six types of complex patterns. Measures of mathematics, early literacy, executive functions (EF), and understanding of complex patterns were collected in late spring. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the early literacy measures, one measure of inhibition, and both mathematics measures comprised one factor. Another inhibition measure, cognitive flexibility, working memory, patterning, and the computation mathematics measure comprised another factor. The correlations obtained and the factor analysis distinguish the cognitive and achievement measures and show the relations between them.
Highlights
Inasmuch as the pretest stratification and randomization procedure had equalized the children initial scores on patterning, literacy, and mathematics, F (3, 168) ranged from 0.33 - 0.61, p > 0.60, analyses were based on post-test scores
ANOVA with planned comparisons showed that the only significant differences were between those who were taught patterning and those who were taught mathematics (p < 0.036) or social studies (p < 0.029)
There was no indication that this patterning instruction had an effect on mathematics similar to that reported by Kidd et al (2013) for first graders nor on both mathematics and literacy as was reported by Kidd et al (2014) and Pasnak et al (2015)
Summary
Patterns are a pervasive and important, but understudied, component of early mathematical knowledge (Rittle-Johnson, Fyfe, Loehr, & Miller, 2015). Patterning is an essential cognitive ability in early mathematics, which includes the ability to identify and describe attributes of objects and similarities and differences between them (Papic, 2007). Mathematics curricula in the early years emphasize the importance of patterns as a foundation for “algebraic” thinking (McGarvey, 2012). Curricular expectations in Pre-K to Grade 2 are typically for children to “recognize,” “identify,” “duplicate,” and “extend” repeating and growing patterns (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2006)
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