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Preservice Teachers Recognising and Responding to Young Children’s Engagement with Mathematics

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Mathematics Education in the Early Years

Abstract

In this paper, a methodology is proposed for gaining insights into preservice teachers’ understandings about young children’s mathematics learning. Using data from a Swedish and Norwegian pilot study, it is possible to see how a set of questions about a stimulus photo of children playing with some glass jars provided insights into the preservice teachers’ mathematical and pedagogical understandings. Although the preservice teachers seemed to be able to recognise a range of mathematical activities and respond to children engaging in them, they often gave only implicit, general information. This raises questions about teacher educators’ expectations about whether preservice teachers, at the end of their courses, should be able to provide more explicit descriptions of what children are doing and suggestions for how to develop their mathematical understandings. Information of this kind can inform teacher educators about what could be improved in future mathematics education courses in early years programmes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway

    Dorota Lembrér, Suela Kacerja & Tamsin Meaney

Authors
  1. Dorota Lembrér
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  2. Suela Kacerja
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  3. Tamsin Meaney
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dorota Lembrér .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Education Karlsruhe, Institute of Mathematics & Computer Science, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Christiane Benz

  2. University of Bamberg, Mathematics & Computer Science Education, Bamberg, Germany

    Anna S. Steinweg

  3. Institute of Mathematics, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

    Hedwig Gasteiger

  4. University of Education Karlsruhe, Institute of Mathematics & Computer Science, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Priska Schöner

  5. University of Education Karlsruhe, Institute of Mathematics & Computer Science, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Helene Vollmuth

  6. University of Education Karlsruhe, Institute of Mathematics & Computer Science, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Johanna Zöllner

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Lembrér, D., Kacerja, S., Meaney, T. (2018). Preservice Teachers Recognising and Responding to Young Children’s Engagement with Mathematics. In: Benz, C., Steinweg, A., Gasteiger, H., Schöner, P., Vollmuth, H., Zöllner, J. (eds) Mathematics Education in the Early Years. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78220-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78220-1_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78219-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78220-1

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