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

职业：调查幼儿在幼儿教室学习数学的机会

• 批准号: 2237902
• 负责人: Nicholas Johnson
• 金额: $ 107.7万
• 依托单位: San Diego State University Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2028-02-29
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2237902&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Investigating; young; children; opportunities

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.

国家正在进入幼儿教育的新时代。州和联邦层面正在采取前所未有的政策和资助举措，以扩大公立学前班的入学机会。这些努力的背后有大量证据表明，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，早期的数学学习尤其可以预测以后的生活和学习成果。然而，课堂研究引起了人们的担忧，即一些儿童的早期学校教育经历的特点是被排除在学习机会之外、在课堂社区中不可见、以及与同龄人或老师的消极关系互动(Battey, 2013; Parks, 2020; Shalaby, 2017; Wood et al., 2018)。要认识到学前教育在解决历史不平等问题上的潜力，需要更深入、更细致地了解每个儿童在课堂内和跨课堂的学习机会的不同方式。该项目的目标是通过捕捉各个儿童随时间的推移的经历来阐明幼儿期数学学习机会的可变性。一项定性纵向调查将对来自一个学区内三个不同学校的 15 名幼儿（从学前班到幼儿园）进行跟踪，该学区为种族、语言和经济上属于少数群体的儿童提供了三年的早期教育。目标是了解这些孩子如何利用机会参与数学活动，他们对了解和做数学需要什么的看法，以及他们利用资源进行数学实践。收集的数据将包括儿童参与特定教学活动（例如计数收藏品）的视频记录、课堂观察的现场笔记、数学任务和儿童书面陈述等工件，以及对儿童及其课堂老师的采访。该项目的研究结果将（1）促进该领域对数学教学和学习的特定方法可能（或可能不会）促进更公平参与的细微差别和条件的理解，（2）深入了解与教师和同龄人的即时互动以及儿童在学校机构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兴参与，例如交流他们的数学思想，使用工具 和陈述，并参与彼此的贡献。该项目将提供案例研究、教学实践描述以及一段时间内学习的纵向记录，为早期数学教学的政策和实践提供信息。如果公共教育要履行其作为社会变革和社会进步工具的承诺，这些见解是关键的一步。该奖项由 Discovery Research preK-12 计划 (DRK-12) 资助，该计划旨在通过创新资源、模型和工具的研究和开发，显着加强 preK-12 学生和教师对科学、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，为拟议项目提供理论和实证依据。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。