A Field Guide to Whole Number Representations in Children’s Books

Abstract

Trade books are a common resource used to teach children mathematical ideas. Yet, detailed analyses of the mathematics content of such books to determine potential impacts on learning are needed. This study investigated how trade books represent whole numbers. A two-pronged approach was used a) one team documented every way 197 books represented numerical ideas and b) another team used standards to identify ideal representations. A third team validated the traits on 67 books. Greater variation than expected was documented (103 traits identified) and organized into a field guide for researchers to consult to design studies about how particular traits influence number learning. Studies could investigate how a particular trait supports learning or experimentally compare a selected combination of the 45 pictorial, 45 written symbol, 10 tactile, 2 kinesthetic, and 1 auditory trait. Implications for practice include recognizing what representations are present or missing from books used in classrooms. The study also serves as an example of how the field of mathematics education would benefit from adopting structures from disciplinary science, such as field guides, to inform how we organize phenomena of mathematics learning.

The Use of Literary Elements in Teaching Mathematics: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Research aimed at examining literary elements, which are as important as pre-service and in-service teachers in the integration process, is aimed at investigating the selected books' characteristics in the context of a specific topic such as numbers and geometry (Darragh, 2018;Fellus et al, 2022;Nesmith & Cooper, 2010;Nurnberger-Haag, 2017;Nurnberger-Haag et al, 2020a;Splinter et al, 2022;Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen & Elia, 2012;Ward et al, 2017), setting out the various field-specific guidelines or criteria for selecting qualified books for integration, and potential misconceptions that literary elements may include (Nurnberger-Haag et al, 2020a;Nurnberger-Haag et al, 2021a;Powell & Nurnberger-Haag, 2015;Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen & Elia, 2012).…”