Teaching Mathematics In Early Grades

By Author: Kinder Pillar
Total Articles: 11
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Two kindergarten teachers are discussing something during a workshop. One says, “I think these children are still too young to understand math concepts. They’re teaching them so much.” The other one agrees to it. Soon somebody from other school joins them and says, “This is so great that our children are going to know and learn much more”

From this discussion, most of us can sympathize with both perspectives. What really should we teach in early years of education?

The Research findings provide some guidance in the instruction of mathematics as follows-

1. Learning mathematics is critical for kindergarten children- Early years are very important for development of math concepts. A child’s knowledge of math in this period predicts his/her math achievement for later years of learning. Math appears to be a core component for thinking and learning process in later years of life.

2. Every child has the potential to learn interesting and challenging math- children in their early years have a surprising ability to do abstract math, that is, math done mentally by reasoning, ...
... without using any concrete objects. Hence teachers can best support creative thinking by letting children follow their own strategies to solve a particular problem.

3. Teacher becomes knowledgeable and effective in teaching math once she understands children’s mathematical development – children’s thinking and learning follows natural developmental milestones. When teachers try to understand this process, they can offer a variety of activities that are based on children’s progress and also they can create developmentally appropriate and effective math learning environments.

Math Learning Trajectory is a useful tool in understanding and supporting the mathematical reasoning and development. It is helpful at all age levels, from birth throughout the school years. This process has three parts: Mathematical goal, Developmental path and Instructional task. These three steps help children to become proficient and making it easy to move on to the next level.

1. Goal- it is the first part of math learning trajectory. Goals include the ideas of mathematics such as, numbers, describing orders, and measure etc. In this part, we also aim at the goal of addition, subtraction, directions, objects and locations.

2. Developmental path- The second part leads to achieve the mathematical goal. It consists of thinking levels which are far more sophisticated. This part describes a particular learning path that children follow in developing the understanding skills of a typical mathematics topic. As young children’s ideas and interpretations of specific situations are different from the grown ups, so learning trajectories play a vital role. A teacher must try to see the child’s view point and must attempt to interpret what a child is thinking and doing. Knowledge of children’s developmental milestones helps her to asses their level of understanding and thinking and learning process. Hence, teacher can offer the instructional tasks based on that level.

3. Instructional tasks- The third part of math learning trajectory includes a set of instructional tasks or the activities that are matched to children’s thinking level in a developmental process. These tasks are designed to help young children learn new ideas and also practice the skills that are required to master the next level. So, teachers promote children’s cognitive growth from one level to the next level.

Teaching challenging and interesting math- the above mentioned three research findings have implications for teaching mathematics at kindergarten grades. The following approaches must be considered-

a. Knowledge and usage of Learning Trajectories.
b. A variety of instructional activities to be included.
c. Challenging activities for children to invent new strategies and build new knowledge levels.
d. A combination of teaching strategies to be used. The effective approach is to discuss the problem with the group, let the children work in groups or pairs and let the children share their solution ideas with the group.
e. Strategies to be discussed in groups or individually.
f. Instructions to be differentiated by giving different problem types to groups or individuals.

Learning Trajectories are a powerful tool to keep all the children engaged in creating and understanding mathematical process. The early years of school have the strongest effects. Math, being so important in early grades, aids children’s motivating and innovative educational experiences and leads to success in the future learning of life.

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