Improving children's ability to connect counting to cardinality through shared book reading

儿童早期数学理解的个体差异在一定程度上是由儿童早期学习环境的差异驱动的。然而，目前还不清楚应该如何构建早期学习环境来支持儿童数学理解的发展。缺乏这样的知识是一个关键问题，因为如果没有这些知识，科学家就无法解释和预测孩子对基本数学概念的理解，父母和教育工作者在为孩子选择学习材料时只能依靠自己的直觉，有时甚至是错误的直觉。在目前的项目中，圣母大学的研究人员将研究一种早期学习材料-儿童数书-的设计如何影响儿童的读书行为和早期数学理解。通过这种方式，该项目将进一步促进EHR核心研究(ECR)计划的使命，促进儿童数学学习的知识和支持它的早期学习环境。中心假设是，有触觉特征的数书(例如，弹出窗口、纹理图形)在支持儿童理解数数和相关数学概念方面不如那些没有触觉特征的书有效。带有触觉特征的书籍预计会引发至少两种可能阻碍数学学习的行为：(A)注意力集中在单个物体上，而不是整个集合上；(B)任务外的话语和行为。研究小组将与不同的学龄前儿童样本合作，从Head Start、标题I幼儿园和私立早期儿童项目。研究方法包括一项前测-干预-后测随机实验，孩子们将在几周的时间里在学校受过培训的导师的指导下阅读指定的书籍，以及一个结构较少的实验，孩子们将在更自然的共享阅读环境中与主要照顾者阅读指定的书籍。通过将这些方法结合起来，研究人员不仅能够确定不同类型的书籍对数学理解前后的变化有何影响，还能够对共享书籍阅读过程中出现的语言和行为进行详细的观察和分析。该项目将通过测试理论驱动的假设来推进早期数学学习的科学。调查结果将成为设计计数书的最佳做法指南，从而帮助家长和幼儿教育工作者在为他们的家庭和教室选择学习材料时做出更明智的决定。

Individual differences in children's early math understanding are driven, in part, by differences in children's early learning environments. However, it is unclear exactly how early learning environments should be structured to support the development of children's math understanding. Lack of such knowledge is a critical problem because, without it, scientists cannot explain and predict children's understanding of foundational math concepts, and parents and educators are left to rely on their own, sometimes erroneous intuitions when choosing learning materials for their children. In the current project, researchers from the University of Notre Dame will study how the design of one type of early learning material - children's counting books - affects children's book reading behaviors and early math understanding. In this way, the project will further the mission of EHR Core Research (ECR) program to advance knowledge of children's math learning and the early learning environments that support it. The central hypothesis is that counting books with tactile features (e.g., pop ups, textured graphics) will be less effective than those without tactile features for supporting children's understanding of counting and associated math concepts. Books with tactile features are expected to elicit at least two behaviors that may hinder math learning: (a) attention focused on the individual objects rather than on the set as a whole and (b) off-task utterances and actions. The research team will work with a diverse sample of preschoolers from Head Start, Title-I preschools, and private early childhood programs. The research methods include a pretest-intervention-posttest randomized experiment in which children will read assigned books with a trained tutor in school over the course of several weeks, as well as a less structured experiment in which children will read assigned books with their primary caregiver in a more naturalistic shared book reading context. By combining these approaches, the researchers will not only be able to determine how different types of books affect pre-to-post changes in math understanding, but also be able to conduct detailed observations and analyses of the language and behaviors that emerge during shared book reading. The project will advance the science of early math learning by testing theory-driven hypotheses. Findings will inform best-practice guidelines for the design of counting books and, thus, will help parents and early childhood educators make more informed decisions when selecting learning materials for their homes and classrooms.