Explain this
Teaching and Learning Early Number
How the publisher describes it:
“Teaching and Learning Early Number is a bestselling guide for all trainee and practising Early Years teachers and classroom assistants. It provides an accessible guide to a wide range of research evidence about the teaching and learning of early number.”
Review by Mark Pepper
In brief:
This edition contains such a wealth of fresh material that I strongly recommend it both to new readers and to those who already possess the original version.
“Includes detailed references and discussion of the most recent developments.”
The second edition of this excellent book is as impressive as the original version. This edition contains such a wealth of fresh material that I strongly recommend it both to new readers and to those who already possess the original version. I wrote a review of the first edition over 10 years ago in which I acknowledged the dual strength of the freshness of ideas and the excellent practical teaching advice that was provided. This edition includes detailed references and discussion of the most recent developments within research, major policy innovations within the teaching of early number and suggestions for practical activities. Ian Thompson has skilfully retained and updated most of the outstanding contributions from the first edition and incorporated 6 new chapters. One curious feature is that the blurb both on the back cover of the book and in the publicity flier promise a new concluding chapter looking to the future. In fact this failed to materialise in the copy that I received though ironically it does appear in the 1997 edition.
A major dilemma for the editor must have involved the identification of the chapters to be cut from the first edition. One of these consists of an impressive contribution from Ian Sugarman which includes interesting activities for the use of the 1-100 number square. It is also particularly disappointing that Janet Duffin’s excellent chapter The Role of Calculators has been omitted. This contains helpful practical suggestions for the use of calculators by young children. This omission is particularly unfortunate as my perception, based on direct observation, is that there are a substantial number of students who lack calculator skills in the later stages of their maths education. Nevertheless, positive support for the use of calculators by young children is provided by Steve Higgins in the second edition.
The first chapter is provided by Carol Aubrey and Dondu Durmaz. The main content consists of an analysis of various research findings into the effectiveness of the National Numeracy Strategy. A significant conclusion that they drew was that the only group that regressed were the low attainers. This suggests that rather than involve this group exclusively in whole class maths activities they would benefit by spending part of the time with learning support.
The second section of the book focuses on the early stages of number acquisition in which there are three chapters. Of these, Kate Tucker’s Mathematics Through Play is particularly useful in the suggestions for practical activities that involve the harnessing of mathematical learning with play.
One section is dedicated to the progression from counting to calculation. A chapter by Ian Thompson strongly endorses the regular use of mental maths within the primary school. He provides succinct definitions for specific strategies for mental calculation involved in the addition and subtraction of number. Additionally he provides a list specifying the environment and strategies that would be helpful in facilitating the progress of the children within mental maths.
A further strand of the book is entitled Children’s mathematical graphics: young children calculating for meaning. An interesting chapter is provided by Tony Harris, Patrick Barmby and Jennifer Suggate. Amongst other suggestions they refer to the conventional number line, the empty number line and arrow cards as useful means of representing and of calculating number. They also present a fascinating diagram in which they provide images of no fewer than14 different pictorial representations for the addition and subtraction of number.
A chapter is provided by Steve Higgins in which he discusses mathematical learning and the use of ICT. He cites a number of software packages that have been designed to help the development of young children’s mathematical learning .He also strongly advocates the use of calculators in the early years in which he claims that calculators can develop the children’s calculation strategies as opposed to simply consolidating skills that have already been acquired.
A section of the book is devoted to Assessing young children’s progress in number. One of the two chapters Interview-based assessment of early number knowledge is by Robert Wright. The author conducted research at Southern Cross University in N.S.W. This involved individual teaching for low attaining young children and a key feature was the widespread use of interviews for assessment purposes.
His approach is encapsulated in his belief that (p.193):
“A critical ingredient for the development of strong instructional programmes in early number is a strong programme of assessment to inform teaching.”
This assertion is not substantiated with any research evidence. Robert Wright has no doubt produced impressive results with his approach, yet as his teaching programme involve the luxury of 1-to-1 teaching, good progress should occur regardless of the assessment programme. Thus there is no evidence of a causal relationship between increased levels of attainment and an intensive assessment programme.
The second chapter in this section is by Ian Thompson and it focuses on ways of addressing errors and misconceptions of young children. Three different strategies are considered with the recommendation that teachers keep an open mind in the possible use of any of them. The author does, however, indicate a clear preference in the early years sector for a method that involves the stimulation of interactive discussion by the class. A suggestion to encourage such discussion is to make use of a puppet called Miss Count, who as the name implies, makes errors within counting. The children then have the opportunity to discuss the corrections that can be made. This chapter contains a number of other suggestions for useful practical activities in the classroom.
The final chapter of the book is by Sue Gifford. In the first edition she provided a fascinating chapter that explored the theme of emergent mathematics. She has contributed a new chapter to the present edition which is equally impressive and consists of a consideration of a mathematics pedagogy for the early years. She refers to recent research and then makes helpful practical suggestions to facilitate the learning of mathematical concepts by young children. These ideas are encapsulated in a list of suggestions within ‘principles of effective pedagogy’. The reproduction of this list would make an ideal starting point for a maths policy within the early years departments of primary schools.
Mark Pepper •
Teaching and Learning Early Number Second Edition
Edited by Ian Thompson, Open University Press
ISBN-13: 978-033523411-0
Paperback £22.99
