1. What were some numeracy related activities that the study talked about?
2. What metaphor did the authors use to describe the type of indirect math activities they were trying to identify? What are some examples of indirect math activities that help children develop numeracy?
3. Describe the tests that the researchers used to evaluate the children's mathematical and verbal ability. Explain the difference between fluency and knowledge. How well do you think standardized tests work to measure children's ability?
4. What activities correlated negatively with ability? What was a possible explanation for the negative correlation? Can you think of any other possible explanations?
5. Home numeracy experiences accounted for what percent of variability in math scores? Of that variability, how much was associated with the games factor? What do these results suggest?
Tudge
6. What are Piaget and Vygotsky's explanations for how children acquire mathematical knowledge before school? What information do we have on typically occurring mathematical experiences? What were the researchers' 3 main goals in conducting the study?
7. What two sub-categories of pre-school math activities were particularly relevant? Describe and give an example of each.
8. How did researchers observe children in the study? What were the four main activities that children engaged in in their everyday lives, and where were the four main settings in which the children were observed? Overall, what did the study find about how much time children were spending on math and literacy activities?
9. What was one of the issues that the researchers had about their method of measuring children's math activities and experiences? What could be a possible explanation to children's limited degree of involvement in mathematical activities relative to literacy activities?
10. Do you think that adults involved in toddlers' (3 year olds) lives put emphasis on teaching them math? What is a suggestion that the study makes to teachers and parents?
1. About how many numeracy related activities did the researchers in the study observe? How many were activities that the child did alone and how many were shared parent-child activities? What might the ratio between the alone activities and the shared activities suggest?
2. What metaphor did the authors use to describe the type of indirect math activities they were trying to identify? What are some examples of indirect math activities that help children develop numeracy?
3. Describe the tests that the researchers used to evaluate the children's mathematical and verbal ability. Explain the difference between fluency and knowledge. How well do you think standardized tests work to measure children's ability? What are other possible ways to assess children's math knowledge?
4. What activities correlated negatively with children's numeracy (numeracy generally, also numerical fluency specifically)? What was a possible explanation for the negative correlation? Can you think of any other possible explanations?
5. Home numeracy experiences accounted for what percent of variability in math scores? Of that variability, how much was associated with the games factor? Interpret the percentage in context-- what does it mean for something to account for some percentage of variability in something else? What do these results suggest?
Tudge
6. What are Piaget and Vygotsky's explanations for how children acquire mathematical knowledge before school? What information do we have on typically occurring mathematical experiences? What were the researchers' 3 main goals in conducting the study?
7. What two sub-categories of pre-school math activities were particularly relevant to the study (What two sub-categories did the researchers choose to focus on)? Describe and give an example of each.
8. How did researchers observe children in the study? What were the four main math-related activities that children engaged in in their everyday lives, and where were the four main settings in which the children were observed? Overall, what did the study find about how much time children were spending on math and literacy activities?
9. What was one of the issues that the researchers had about their method of measuring children's math activities and experiences? What could be a possible explanation to children's limited degree of involvement in mathematical activities relative to literacy activities?
10. Do you think that adults involved in toddlers' (3 year olds) lives put emphasis on teaching them math? What is a suggestion that the study makes to teachers and parents? Based on the study and your own experience, what suggestions might you make to teachers and parents?
