Early Childhood Research and Practice

From the heading I am able to see that the journal is going to be about “Learning Stories and Children’s Powerful Mathematics. ” There are three authors in total who were part of the publishing of the journal, they are Bob Perry, Sue Dockett and Elspeth Harley. It is possible to find out a great deal of information about the authors, for example what university they attended, their current job roles and what they are interested in researching. The journal was published in the Early Childhood Research Practice, and it can only be found here.

The journal has been peer reviewed. From reading the title and the abstract, I have learnt that “The approaches to teaching and learning mathematics in Australian preschools and schools can be quite different. ” It is believed that different cultures are taught in different ways, however I would have to disagree with this statement, as schools today have multicultural classes, therefore every child has an equal opportunity and is taught the core subjects in the same way.

The introduction made it clear that there is often conflict between this increase in formality and the play-based, child-centred philosophies of prior-to-school settings (Thomson, Rowe, Underwood, & Peck, 2005). They key to the research was to investigate young children’s mathematical experiences. The article was set out under numerous headings, separating key information into paragraphs. With-in the articles there are also tables showing how maths can be linked with play and whether it is a successful way of teaching the younger generation.

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Two of the authors of this paper worked with a small group of early childhood educators for two days in 2005 and two days in 2006. This paper reports how the powerful mathematical ideas and the developmental learning outcomes were brought together by a group of practicing early childhood educators into a numeracy matrix that encouraged the educators to plan, implement, and assess their practices. It also considers the use of learning stories by the early childhood educators to assess the mathematics learning of preschool children.

Their list bears many similarities to other such lists (see, for example, Greenes, Ginsburg, & Balfanz, 2004; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). Learning Stories are qualitative snapshots, recorded as structured written narratives, often with accompanying photographs that document and communicate the context and complexity of children’s learning (Carr, 2001). Luke has been given the opportunity, through the provision of time, materials, and space, to “participate purposefully in spatial tasks” and to “demonstrate flexibility and to make choices. The article was easy to follow and fulfilled all of its set aims. Through their use of the numeracy matrix, the educators are now able to see how each of the powerful ideas contributes to the DLO. One of them was able to suggest that the work with the numeracy matrix had helped them see how the DLOs were the capstones to all that they were trying to do in all learning areas The purpose of this paper was to introduce the numeracy matrix, which has been developed as part of the Southern Numeracy Initiative in South Australia.

Subjective evidence from the participants in the Southern Numeracy Initiative suggest that the use of the numeracy matrix and the thinking behind it have had positive effects on the pedagogical practices of the early childhood educators involved. However some educators disagreed with this and the source can’t be trusted. The article gave a to the point review of what they were trying to achieve and also gave references so if you wanted to further your knowledge on the topic or similar reports then you could do so.

Unlike previous articles, this one did not relate to anything that I have previously read. It interested me as I believe that maths is over looked and there is a great amount of ways in linking it in with everyday play and practice; however some educators do not do that. With Australia now putting this “matrix” into place others may follow suit and see the positive outcomes.

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