Math Language Research Articles

Math Talk in Play Contexts: Relations Between Parent and Child Math Language and Early Math Skills

Math Talk in Play Contexts: Relations Between Parent and Child Math Language and Early Math Skills

A capturing math language use during block play: Creation of the spatial and quantitative mathematical language coding system

The goals of the current study were: 1) to modify and expand an existing spatial mathematical language coding system to include quantitative mathematical language terms and 2) to examine the extent to which preschool-aged children used spatial and quantitative mathematical language during a block play intervention. Participants included 24 preschool-aged children (Age M = 57.35 months) who were assigned to a block play intervention. Children participated in up to 14 sessions of 15-to-20-minute block play across seven weeks. Results demonstrated that spatial mathematical language terms were used with a higher raw frequency than quantitative mathematical language terms during the intervention sessions. However, once weighted frequencies were calculated to account for the number of codes in each category, spatial language was only used slightly more than quantitative language during block play. Similar patterns emerged between domains within the spatial and quantitative language categories. These findings suggest that both quantitative and spatial mathematical language usage should be evaluated when considering whether child activities can improve mathematical learning and spatial performance. Further, accounting for the number of codes within categories provided a more representative presentation of how mathematical language was used versus solely utilizing raw word counts. Implications for future research are discussed.

Setting the stage for successful inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorder: Supports to generate and process mathematical language

AbstractStudents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are included in the general education classroom more often than ever before. Despite mathematical strengths and early success, these students experience poor outcomes (academic and employment) compared to their typically developing peers. The language of mathematics increases in complexity, use, and expectations as students age. To facilitate the development of mathematical proficiency for students with ASD, teachers can incorporate instructional strategies to support language processing and use in mathematics. This manuscript provides practical advice for teachers who want to support math language for students with ASD in the general education environment including (a) the importance of these supports, (b) specific recommendations, (c) visual and descriptive examples, and (d) additional resources.

General and math vocabulary contributions to early numeracy skills in a large population-representative sample

There are well-documented associations between numeracy development in preschool age children and general and math vocabulary, literacy, and executive functions. However, the studies have largely included small samples of children with parents with either predominantly low or higher socioeconomic background (SES); further, few studies have included measures of all these domains in the same analyses. In this current study, we examined how general vocabulary, math vocabulary, rhyme detection and three measures of executive functions are associated with numeracy development in a population representative sample of 2,931 Danish children 3–5 years (51% male, 89% white). Multi-level regressions controlling for child age and, sex, and in some analyses also parental education and income confirmed that general vocabulary (β = 0.16), math language (β = 0.17), rhyme detection (β = 0.14), attention shifting (β = 0.09), inhibitory control (β = 0.05), and working memory (β = 0.09) each are associated with numeracy after controlling for covariates when estimated in the same model. Analyses of extreme performance (low-high) suggests a much closer and symmetrical connection between math language and numeracy compared to that between general vocabulary and numeracy. Interestingly, family SES is weakly but significantly related to all measures, most strongly for the vocabulary measures, but does not influence the pattern of results from regression analyses. In conclusion, both general vocabulary and mathematics-specific vocabulary contribute substantially to early numeracy skills. Rhyme detection and executive functions are also associated with numeracy skills, but with a lower magnitude.

Fraction Ball impact on student and teacher math talk and behavior

We assessed the impacts of Fraction Ball—a novel suite of games combining the benefits of embodied guided play for math learning—on the math language production and behavior of students and teachers. In the Pilot Experiment, 69 fifth and sixth graders were randomly assigned to play four different Fraction Ball games or attend normal physical education class. The Efficacy Experiment was implemented to test improvements made through co-design with teachers with 160 fourth through sixth graders. Researchers observed and coded for use of math language and behavior. Playing Fraction Ball resulted in consistent increases of students’ and teachers’ use of fraction (SDs = 0.98–2.42) and decimal (SDs = 0.65–1.64) language and number line arithmetic, but not in whole number, spatial language, counting, instructional gesturing, questioning, and planning. We present evidence of the math language production in physical education and value added by Fraction Ball to support rational number language and arithmetic through group collaboration.

The math talk learning environment: Testing an early childhood math intervention

Given the importance attributed to math talk, this study sought to test the effects of a Math Talk Learning Environment for exposing children to math talk and whether this effort would improve children's early math skills. The intervention used guided play in small group math games focused on numeracy skills. The analytic sample comprised 95 racially and ethnically diverse children enrolled in Head Start classrooms randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or the counterfactual. Students in one group engaged in math games while being encouraged to use math language, whereas the other group engaged in the same math games without any explicit math language encouragement. Linear mixed modeling was used to regress children's residualized math gains on condition. Results showed a significant difference in the general math skills and the specific numeracy skills gained by children who participated in the two treatment groups compared to the counterfactual. No significant differences could be detected between the treatment groups; yet, there are indicators that the intervention warrants further investigation. This research parallels prior research and contributes new findings that will inform early childhood practitioners, developmental psychologists, and others interested in applying cognitive science to the classroom. The discussion includes descriptions of the supports required and challenges to fostering young children's mathematical thinking.

Understanding Mathematics Perception through Drawing: An Online Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (OIPA) Study

In this study, it is aimed to reveal the images formed in the minds of high school students about the concept of mathematics with the help of their own expressions and drawings. In this qualitative study, the core of 100 high school students’ experiences of math was examined with a holistic approach using Online Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (OIPA). In order to obtain in-depth information about the concept of math from the participants, the purposeful sampling method was used. It was paid full attention to ensure that the participants were high school students. The data were obtained by using the OIPA form, which allows students to create stories and drawings about the concept of math. The data obtained were analyzed in three stages by the researcher and an expert psychologist. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that there were deficiencies in students’ mathematical literacy in situations such as understanding the role of mathematics in daily life and using it to solve real life problems. Additionally, the students expressed the concept of math using 18 different main themes, most of which contained negative strong emotions. Students associated math most frequently with the themes of life (44%) and difficult math language (38%). The students associated math least frequently with the themes of hate (5%) and unimportant (5%). On the other hand, students explained the math domain with individual factors (74%) the most and exosystem (15%) the least. In line with the results obtained in the study, a few recommendations were made.

First Insights into Preschool Teachers’ Instructional Quality in Block Play and Its Associations with Children’s Knowledge, Interest, Academic Self-Concept and Cognitive Aspects

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Promoting children’s science knowledge by adequate measures such as guided or free play is a cardinal goal of preschool. However, there is considerable variability in preschool teachers’ instructional quality in block play, which might be associated with children’s domain-specific science skills but also their mathematic and language achievement. To examine preschool teachers’ instructional quality in a free block play episode we used a video-based assessment. We assessed children’s knowledge in block play along with mathematics, language capacity, self-concept and cognitive skills. In order to obtain first insights into the association between teachers’ practice and children’s knowledge, we took a correlational approach. The sample consisted of N = 73 preschool teachers and N = 431 children. The results revealed considerable differences between preschool teachers’ instructional quality. Overall instructional quality during block play as well as specific dimensions such as the use of spatial language, math language and cognitive activating scaffolding were positively associated with children’s stability knowledge in block play. Moreover, preschool teachers’ general language use and stimulation of communication as well as their sensitivity were positively associated with children’s self-concept in block play. Practice and policy: Our study emphasizes the importance of preschool teachers’ support for children’s knowledge and self-concept and expands prior findings on early science learning.

Prospective Teachers’ Perceptions, Reliance, and Barriers to ICT Integration in Mathematics Learning

Prospective teachers’ (PTs’) ICT integration (ICTi) for learning math (LM) has been studied in the global context, however, it lacks in the local context. This study served to bridge the gap by exploring PTs’: perceptions toward ICT competence and integration; reasons for relying on technology; and the challenges encountered while LM. The methodology was grounded in interpretivism, induction, mono-method-qualitative, case study, and cross-sectional components. The participants’ selection was based on convenient and purposive techniques. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews (SSI) and focus group discussions (FGD) and were analyzed using thematic data analysis. The findings informed positive perceptions of PTs toward ICTi where the purpose of relying on technology varied across participants. Though ICTi was found important, still there are inherent challenges associated with its integration, for example, scanning online material, encoding math language, and limited awareness of mathematics application software. The recommendations necessitate the development of special programs to offer hands-on learning experiences along with mitigating challenges for the prospective teachers to integrate ICT for LM. Future researchers may focus on variables through the blended model of teaching and learning that impact the academic performance of students in a math course.

An Optimized Bagging Ensemble Learning Approach Using BESTrees for Predicting Students’ Performance

Every academic institution's goal is to identify students who require additional assistance and take appropriate actions to improve their performance. As such, various research studies have focused on developing prediction models that can detect correlated patterns influencing students' performance, dropout, collaboration, and engagement. Among the influential predictive models available, the bagging ensemble has captured the interest of researchers seeking to improve prediction accuracy over single classifiers. However, prior work in this area has focused mainly on selecting single classifiers as the base classifier of the bagging ensemble, with little to no further optimization of the proposed framework. This study aims to fill this gap by providing a bagging ensemble framework to optimize its hyperparameters and achieve improved prediction accuracy. The proposed model used the Weka BESTrees data mining tool and Math language course student dataset from UCI Machine Learning Repository. Based on the experiments performed, the proposed bagging optimization technique can effectively increase the accuracy of a traditional bagging ensemble method. It reveals further that the proposed BESTrees framework can achieve an optimized performance when trained with the appropriate hyperparameters and hill climb metrics.

MEMBANGUN KEMAMPUAN KOMUNIKASI MATEMATIS DALAM PEMBELAJARAN MATEMATIKA

Until now the teacher's role in building students' mathematical communication skills, especially in learning mathematics is still very limited. Communication ability is a very important aspect that needs to be owned by students who want to succeed in their studies. In line with that, according to Kist (Clark, 2005) effective communication skills are abilities that students need to have for all subjects.
 Mathematical communication skills (mathematical communication) in learning mathematics really need to be developed. This is because through mathematical communication students can organize their mathematical thinking both orally and in writing. In addition, students can also provide appropriate responses between students and the media in the learning process. Even in social interactions, someone who has good communication skills will tend to adapt more easily to anyone where he is in a community, which in turn will become a successful person in his life.
 In this paper, the author presents the notion of mathematical communication skills, with the scope of two things, namely students' ability to use mathematics as a communication tool (math language), and students' ability to communicate the mathematics learned as the content of the message that must be conveyed. How and why communication is important to build a mathematical community through open lines of communication in the classroom.

Grandparenting Role on Math Online Learning in Chinese Multigenerational Households

Under the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has become m sore frequently used and has carried over cultural characteristics. In China, grandparents exert a great impact on parent–child relationships and on children’s online learning process. This study proposed six models and examined the roles of various Chinese family members (father, mother, grandparents) and their online accompaniment time in promoting preschoolers’ math learning. A total of 3552 participants were recruited to finish online questionnaires about demographics, household adult–child interactions, online company time investment, and math language performance. We found that the relationships between father time investment online and children’s math language performance were mediated by the amount of time that maternal grandparents spent with children on online learning. To contextualize these findings, we discussed the unique Chinese cultural aspects of the grandparent–parent–children relationship during the development of online math language performance in Chinese families.

Word by Word: Everyday Math Talk in the Homes of Hispanic Families

ABSTRACT Children learn math concepts long before they enter school. Across all cultures, children are exposed to number and spatial language to varying degrees during everyday home routines. Yet most studies of math talk occur in the lab and target non-Hispanic, English-speaking families. We expanded inquiry to the spontaneous math language (i.e., number and spatial language) of Spanish-speaking mothers and their 1- to 2-year-olds (N = 50) during home activities. Mothers varied enormously in their use of math language, and mother math language related to toddler math language, whereas mother non-math language did not. Children’s math language both preceded and followed mother math talk, suggesting imitation and reinforcement as important processes in children’s math language learning. Children also produced math language outside the context of mother input. Findings advance an understanding of children’s early math language in natural settings and have implications for interventions aimed at promoting math skills in toddlers from diverse backgrounds.

Music-Based Mentoring and Academic Improvement in High-Poverty Elementary Schools

Recent research links disparities in children’s language-related brain function to poverty and its correlates. Such disparities are hypothesized to underlie achievement gaps between students from low-income families and more advantaged peers. Interventions that improve language-related brain function in low-income students exist, but evaluations of their implementation within high-poverty elementary schools do not. This comparison-group study evaluates whether implementation within high-poverty elementary schools of Harmony Project music-based mentoring, previously shown in randomized controlled research to improve language-related brain function and literacy in low-income students, might be associated with academic improvement for participants compared with non-participating peers. Standardized academic achievement scores were evaluated retrospectively for 2nd graders who opted into or out of Harmony Project (HP) at baseline (nHP = 218; nnon-HP = 862) for weekly music-based mentoring over 2 years. Adjusting for baseline scores, HP participation was associated with higher standardized scores for math (+17 points; ß = .06, p = .02) and English language arts (+26 points; ß = .08, p = .002). Importantly, students with the lowest prior achievement scores showed the greatest gains for both math (+33 points; ß =.13, p =.02) and English language arts (+39 points; ß =.14, p =.02). Implementation within high-poverty elementary schools of a program previously found to improve language-related brain function in low-income students was associated with significant academic improvement for participants, particularly those with the lowest prior levels of achievement. Findings support the hypothesis that disparities in children’s language-related brain function linked to poverty and its correlates may underlie achievement gaps.

A Review Paper on the Role of Sentiment Analysis in Quality Education.

Education is a critical indication of progress and a major factor in well-being. The UNs Sustainable Development Goals establish specific requirements for increasing educational quality and protecting the well-being of children. UN’s agenda for Sustainable Development Goal 4 which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” was adopted in India in 2015. Students’ academic success is a vital part of the education system. Predicting student performance has grown more challenging due to the enormous amount of data in educational databases. Low-performing students will experience a variety of difficulties, including delayed graduation and even dropping out. Therefore, educational institutions should closely monitor the academic progress of their students and provide quick assistance to those who have low performance. Using Students’ academic achievement predictions to accomplish that is one method. This method will help educational institutions in identifying and supporting low-performing students at an initial stage. This study presents a systematic review of research on sentiment analysis towards SDG4 quality education through social media platform such as Twitter, Facebook and a review of 21 studies indexed in SCOPUS. Using social media data rather than a conventional survey of the data, evaluation of outspoken opinion and feelings of students towards their institution to obtain Quality Education. In this study, the dataset is taken from kaggle with names as student-performance-data-set which uses two files named as student-math, and student-por which shows the student performance in a Math language course and Portuguese language course, respectively, with 33 attributes and 396 records in each. Of 396 records, 110 records were selected as sample. During the visualization, we analyzed SVM model is stable because even minor data changes have no impact on the hyperplane and it handles the nonlinear data using Kernel techniques.

Predictive ability of problem-solving efficacy sources on mathematics achievement

<span>This study examined the relationship between mathematics achievement and mathematics problem-solving efficacy sources. A cluster sample of 123 first year prospective teachers of a Philippine higher education institution responded to a 30-item problem-solving efficacy scales and took the teacher-made tests in Mathematics in the Modern World course; namely, Non-Routine Problem Solving and Natures and Numbers Pattern Tracing (NRPS-NNPT), Math Language and Symbols (MLS), and Data Management (DM). The research data was analyzed using Descriptive statistics, Pearson-r and Standard Multiple Regression. On the average, the respondents had satisfactory mathematics achievement. They reported a high level of social persuasion and somatic response and a low level of vicarious experience and mastery experience in mathematics problem-solving. Vicarious experience was directly associated with mastery experience while social persuasion and mastery experience were both inversely related to somatic responses. Among the four problem-solving efficacy sources, only social persuasion significantly predicted mathematics achievement specifically in the areas of NRPS-NNPT, MLS, and DM. Thus, becoming a trusted voice of encouragement and designing a persuasive and optimistic learning environment are highly recommended roles of schools to facilitate students’ mathematics achievement.</span>

Cross-domain associations between mathematical and narrative abilities in preschool-aged children

Both mathematical and narrative abilities are considered critical dimensions of children’s kindergarten readiness skills and are emphasized in developmental standards and readiness assessments during the prekindergarten period. Yet, despite considerable opportunities available to educators to leverage potential cross-domain associations in their instruction, little is known about how component math skills are associated with narrative skills. The current study extends prior theoretical and empirical work on cross-domain associations by examining the extent to which component math skills, constituting a kindergarten readiness assessment battery, are associated with narrative comprehension skills in children aged 4–6 years. Two geographically distinct samples of children enrolled in a summer kindergarten readiness program in the United States (N = 108) were used to explore how early numeracy skills (e.g., counting, cardinality), math language, and patterning skills individually and together contributed to variance in narrative comprehension skills. Zero-order correlations indicated that math and narrative skills were significantly and moderately correlated, with cardinality and math language skills showing the strongest associations, followed by patterning and counting skills. Furthermore, results from a multiple regression analysis indicated that cardinality and math language each explained a significant and substantial proportion of variance in narrative comprehension skills when controlling for the other math skills. Implications for theoretical models of cross-domain development of children’s cognitive skills are discussed.

The Longitudinal Effects of School Improvement Grants

School Improvement Grants (SIGs) exemplify a capacity-building investment to spur sustainable changes in America’s persistently lowest-performing schools and stimulate the economy. This study examines both short- and longer-term effects of the first two cohorts of SIG schools from four locations across the country. Dynamic difference-in-differences models show that SIGs’ effects on achievement in Grades 3 to 8, as measured by state test scores in math and English language arts, gradually increased over the three reform years and were largely sustained for 3 or 4 years afterward. Evidence on high school graduation rates, though less robust, also suggests SIGs had positive effects. SIGs’ effects on students of color and low-socioeconomic-status students were similar to or significantly larger than the overall effects.

Concurrent predictors of science core knowledge in preschool

There is little empirical evidence on cross-domain relations with science and other academic domains, which contributes to a limited understanding of the development of early science and how to best support it. The purpose of this study was to examine multiple concurrent predictors of science core knowledge, including executive functioning (EF), vocabulary, literacy, math, and math language in preschool. This study overcomes the limitations of previous work exploring relations between individual predictors, by addressing potentially spurious relations due to acting as proxies for other variables. Data were collected from 86 preschool-aged children (36 female) from families with low incomes. Findings revealed that when EF, vocabulary, literacy, math, and math language were included in the same model as concurrent predictors of science, only vocabulary significantly predicted children’s science core knowledge. Findings from this study have potential implications for the refinement of early science skills and intervention development.

Infants' and Toddlers' Language, Math and Socio-Emotional Development: Evidence for Reciprocal Relations and Differential Gender and Age Effects.

Toddlerhood is characterized by rapid development in several domains, such as language, socio-emotional behavior and emerging math skills all of which are important precursors of school readiness. However, little is known about how these skills develop over time and how they may be interrelated. The current study investigates young children’s development at two time points, with about 7 months in between, assessing their language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills with teacher ratings. The sample includes 577 children from 18 until 36 months of age of 86 childcare classrooms. The results of the autoregressive path analyses showed moderate to strong stability of language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills, although the magnitude of associations was smaller for the latter. The cross-lagged path analyses highlighted the importance of language and socio-emotional skills for development in the other domains. Differential relations were found for the autoregressive and cross-lagged paths depending on gender and age. Language skills appeared a stronger predictor of boys’ socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skill development compared to girls. Girls’ socio-emotional skills predicted growth in math. For boys, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills appeared to be unrelated. Language skills showed stronger relations with the development of math language and numeracy skills for younger children as compared to older children. Also, for older children math language and numeracy skills negatively predicted growth in their socio-emotional skills. The findings provide more insights in how language, math language and numeracy skills and socio-emotional skills co-develop in the early years and as such have important implications for interventions aimed to support children’s development.