Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Early mathematics skills are predictive of later achievement, but there is evidence teachers generally provide little mathematics instruction in preschool classrooms. We conducted this survey study to better understand teachers’ reported beliefs about their own mathematics skills, expectations, and practices for children with and without disabilities, and the impact of these reported beliefs and practices on the perceived effectiveness of their instruction. We found teachers had less confidence in their own mathematics skills than their mathematics teaching abilities and had differing expectations for children with and without disabilities. Their beliefs about their own mathematics abilities predicted their perceived effectiveness for typically developing children only, but their beliefs about their teaching abilities predicted their perceived effectiveness for children with and without disabilities. Implications include the need to better prepare and support teachers to teach mathematics to all children and collect data from varied sources on teachers’ practices.

Keywords

mathematics teacher beliefs preschool children with disabilities

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bachman

H. J.

Degol

J. L.

Elliott

Scharphorn

El Nokali

N. E.

Palmer

K. M.

(2018). Preschool math exposure in private center-based care and low-SES children’s math development. Early Education and Development, 29(3), 417–434.

Beswick

(2005, January 7). It depends on the students: Influencing teachers’ beliefs about the ends and means of numeracy teaching. In Clarkson

P. C.

Downton

Gronn

Horne

McDonough

Pierce

R. U.

Roche

(Eds.), Building Connections: Research, Theory and Practice: Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, MERGA, Sydney (pp. 137–144).

Chen

J.-Q.

McCray

Adams

Leow

(2014). A survey study of early childhood teachers’ beliefs and confidence about teaching early math. Early Childhood Education Journal, 42, 367–377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-013-0619-0

Claessens

Engel

(2013). How important is where you start? Early mathematics knowledge and later school success. Teachers College Record, 115(6), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811311500603

Coffey

(2022). Still underpaid and unequal: Early childhood educators face low pay and a worsening wage gap. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/still-underpaid-and-unequal/

Courtade

Spooner

Browder

Jimenez

(2012). Seven reasons to promote standards-based instruction for students with severe disabilities: A reply to Ayres, Lowrey, Douglas & Sievers (2011). Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 47(1), 3–13. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23880557

Dumas

McNeish

Sarama

Clements

(2019). Preschool mathematics intervention can significantly improve student learning trajectories through elementary school. AERA Open, 5(4), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419879446

Duncan

G. J.

Dowsett

C. J.

Claessens

Magnuson

Huston

A. C.

Klebanov

Pagani

L. S.

Feinstein

Engel

Brooks-Gunn

Sexton

Duckworth

Japel

(2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1428–1446. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1428

Early

D. M.

Iruka

I. U.

Ritchie

Barbarin

O. A.

Winn

D-M. C.

Crawford

G. M.

Frome

P. M.

Clifford

R. M.

Burchinal

Howes

Bryant

D. B.

Pianta

R. C.

(2010). How do pre-kindergarteners spend their time? Gender, ethnicity, and income as predictors of experiences in pre-kindergarten classrooms. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25(2), 177–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.10.003.

10.

Fuson

K. C.

Clements

D. H.

Sarama

(2015). Making early math education work for all children. Phi Delta Kappan, 97(3), 63–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0031721715614831

11.

Gashaj

Thaqi

Mast

F. W.

Roebers

C. M.

(2023). Foundations for future math achievement: Early numeracy, home learning environment, and the absence of math anxiety. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 33, 100217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2023.100217

12.

Geist

(2015). Math anxiety and the “math gap”: How attitudes toward mathematics disadvantages students as early as preschool. Education, 135(3), 328–336.

13.

Gerde

H. K.

Pierce

S. J.

Van Egeren

L. A.

(2018). Early childhood educators’ self-efficacy in science, math, and literacy instruction and science practcei in the classsroom. Early Education and Development, 29(1), 70–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2017.1360127

14.

Harris

P. A.

Taylor

Thielke

Payne

Gonzalez

Conde

J. G.

(2009). Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap): A metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 42(2), 377–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2008.08.010

15.

Kiss

A. J.

Nelson

Christ

T. J.

(2019). Predicting third-grade mathematics achievement: A longitudinal investigation of the role of early numeracy skills. Learning Disability Quarterly, 42(3), 161–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731948718823083

16.

Klehm

(2014). The effects of teacher beliefs on teaching practices and achievement of students with disabilities. Teacher Education and Special Education, 37(3), 216–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888406414525050

17.

Lee

J. S.

Ginsburg

H. P.

(2007). What is appropriate mathematics education for four-year-olds? Pre-kindergarten teachers’ beliefs. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 5(1), 2–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X07072149

18.

Nguyen

Watts

T. W.

Duncan

G. J.

Clements

D. H.

Sarama

J. S.

Wolfe

Spitler

M. E.

(2016). Which preschool mathematics competencies are most predictive of fifth grade achievement? Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36(3), 550–560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.02.003

19.

Olson

Leko

M. M.

Roberts

C. A.

(2016). Providing students with severe disabilities access to the general education curriculum. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 41(3), 143–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1540796916651975

20.

Pazzaglia

A. M.

Stafford

E. T.

Rodriguez

S. M.

(2016). Survey methods for educators: Selecting samples and administering surveys (part 2 of 3) (REL 2016-160). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Education Laboratory Northeast & Islands. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.

21.

Platas

L. M.

(2015). The mathematical development beliefs survey: Validity and reliability of a measure of preschool teachers’ beliefs about the learning and teaching of early mathematics. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 13(3), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X14523746

22.

Stipek

(2013). Mathematics in early childhood education: Revolution or evolution? Early Education & Development, 24(4), 431–435.

23.

Sullivan

G. M.

Artino

A. R.

(2013). Analyzing and interpreting data from Likert-type scales. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 5(4), 541–542. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-5-4-18

24.

Van Egeren

L. A.

Watson

Morris

Farrand

Lownds

. (2007). Creating school readiness through early childhood science education: Evaluation of Head Start on Science. Michigan State University.

25.

M. J.

Zhao

Fils-Aime

(2022). Response rates of online surveys in published research: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 7, 100206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2022.100206

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB

Preschool Teachers’ Perceived Efficacy Providing Mathematics Instruction to Young Children With and Without Disabilities: A Survey Study

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material