ERIC Number: EJ1443561
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Oct
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1863-9690
EISSN: EISSN-1863-9704
Preschool Teachers' Mathematical Questions during Shared Picture Book Reading
Joke Torbeyns; Emke Op't Eynde; Fien Depaepe; Lieven Verschaffel
ZDM: Mathematics Education, v56 n5 p907-921 2024
High-quality instruction in preschool is important for children's mathematical development. To date, the domain-specific elements constituting mathematics instruction quality and the factors associated with this quality are hardly studied, resulting in serious gaps in our insights into the topic. We aimed to address this gap by investigating (a) 43 preschool teachers' mathematical questioning behavior during shared picture book reading, and (b) its association with picture book and teacher characteristics. We analyzed the number and the level of abstraction of mathematical questions when sharing a mathematical (i.e., written with explicit mathematical aim and content) and a non-mathematical (i.e., written without explicit mathematical aim and content) picture book, and their associations with teachers' professional competence. For mathematical and non-mathematical picture books, teachers formulated mathematical questions, mainly at lower levels of abstraction. They formulated more, but proportionally less abstract, mathematical questions when sharing a mathematical versus a non-mathematical picture book. We found only limited evidence for associations between teachers' questioning behavior and their professional competence. Our findings indicate that preschool teachers offer opportunities to engage in mathematical interaction during shared picture book reading, pointing to the potential of this activity to implement high-quality mathematics instruction. They further show that mathematical picture books enable more mathematical interaction than non-mathematical picture books, but not at higher levels of abstraction. Future studies are needed to replicate and complement our findings, with special attention for the contribution of teacher professional competence and the fit to children's competency level.
Descriptors: Preschool Teachers, Preschool Education, Questioning Techniques, Picture Books, Reading Strategies, Mathematics, Teacher Competencies, Interaction, Mathematics Instruction
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A