CAREER: Investigating young children's opportunities to learn mathematics in early childhood classrooms

这个国家正在开启幼儿教育的新纪元。州和联邦各级正在采取史无前例的政策和资金举措，以扩大接受公共资助的学前教育的机会。这些努力是由大量证据推动的，即高质量的早期学习机会具有深远的学术、社会和经济影响。研究表明，特别是早期的数学学习对以后的生活和学习结果具有预测性。然而，课堂研究引起了人们的关注，即一些儿童的早期学习经历的特点是被排除在学习机会之外，在课堂社区中看不见，以及与同龄人或教师的负面关系互动(Battey，2013；Parks，2020；Shalaby，2017；Wood等人，2018)。要实现学前教育解决历史不平等问题的潜力，就需要更深入、更细致入微地了解儿童个体在教室内和教室之间的各种学习机会。该项目的目标是通过捕捉儿童个体随着时间的推移的经历，阐明早期儿童数学学习机会的多样性。一项定性的纵向调查将跟踪15名幼儿(从学前班到幼儿园)，他们来自一个学区内的三个不同的学校地点，该学区服务于种族、语言和经济上属于少数群体的儿童的很大比例，跨越三年的早期教育。目标是了解这些孩子如何把握参与数学活动的机会，他们对了解和做数学需要什么的看法，以及他们利用哪些资源从事数学实践。收集的数据将包括儿童参与具体教学活动的录像(例如，计数收集)、课堂观察的实地笔记、诸如数学任务和儿童书面陈述等人工制品，以及对儿童及其课堂教师的采访。该项目的成果将(1)促进实地对特定数学教学方法可能(或可能不)促进更公平参与的细微差别和条件的了解，(2)深入了解与教师和同龄人的即时互动与儿童在学校内的长期经历之间的关系，以及(3)记录幼儿对数学实践的新参与，例如交流他们的数学思想，使用工具和表述，以及参与彼此的贡献。该项目将提供案例研究，教学实践的描述，以及随着时间的推移学习的纵向记录，为早期数学教学和学习的政策和实践提供信息。如果公共教育要实现其作为社会变革和改善社会的载体的承诺，这些见解是关键的一步。该奖项由发现研究预科-12项目(DRK-12)资助，该项目旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高预科-12学生和教师的科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验上的证明。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The nation is embarking upon a new era in early childhood education. Unprecedented policy and funding initiatives at state and federal levels are underway to expand access to publicly funded preschool. These efforts are driven by considerable evidence that high quality early learning opportunities have far-reaching academic, social, and economic effects. Research has shown early mathematics learning, in particular, to be predictive of later life and learning outcomes. However, classroom studies raise concerns that some children’s early schooling experiences are characterized by exclusion from opportunities to learn, invisibility in the classroom community, and negative relational interactions with peers or teachers (Battey, 2013; Parks, 2020; Shalaby, 2017; Wood et al., 2018). Realizing the potential of preschool to address historical inequities demands a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the varied ways opportunities to learn play out for individual children within and across classrooms.The goal of this project is to illuminate the variability in opportunities for mathematics learning in early childhood through capturing the experiences of individual children over time. A qualitative, longitudinal investigation will follow 15 young children (from preschool to kindergarten), from three different school sites within a district that serves a large proportion of children from racially, linguistically, and economically minoritized populations, across three years of early schooling. The goal is to understand how these children navigate opportunities to participate in mathematical activity, their perspectives of what knowing and doing mathematics entails, and the resources they draw upon to engage in mathematical practices. Data collected will include video recordings of children’s participation in specific instructional activities (e.g., Counting Collections), field notes from classroom observations, artifacts such as mathematical tasks and children’s written representations, and interviews with children and their classroom teachers. Findings from the project will (1) advance the field’s understanding of the nuances of and conditions under which particular approaches to mathematics teaching and learning may (or may not) promote more equitable participation, (2) provide insights into relationships between in-the-moment interactions with teachers and peers, and children’s long-term experiences within the institution of school, and (3) document young children’s emerging participation in mathematical practices such as communicating about their mathematical ideas, using tools and representations, and engaging with one another’s contributions. The project will provide case studies, depictions of instructional practice, and longitudinal records of learning over time to inform policy and practice in the teaching and learning of early math. Such insights are a critical step if public education is to fulfill its promise as a vehicle for social change and the betterment of society.The award is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.