Pre-school teachers' ways of promoting mathematical learning in picture book reading

Abstract

Early childhood educators who are aware of how young children engage with mathematics are more likely to believe in planning for and engaging with children to develop their mathematical understandings. This contrasts with early childhood educators who do not recognise mathematical thinking in young children and who are likely to use tightly controlled mathematical experiences. Pre-service early childhood educators would benefit from seeing examples of young children's playful engagement with their environment, as, through these examples, pre-service educators can develop understandings of the situation-specific skills needed to recognise the mathematical thinking in children's actions. These skills support the educator in planning learning environments and experiences that will build on children's mathematical understandings and thinking. This chapter describes an approach created to show pre-service early childhood educators how very young children's behaviours can be observed in video and then deconstructed by observers into actions that can be linked with Bishop's mathematical activities. This approach aims to develop the critical situation-specific skill of identifying very young children's mathematical thinking through careful observation of their behaviours and actions. Literature both supporting and identifying issues with the approach are considered.