Early mathematics development and later achievement: Further evidence

Abstract

There is a growing international recognition of the importance of the early years of schooling as well as an interest being shown in the relationship of early education to later achievement. This article focuses on a cohort of English pupils who have been tracked through primal T school during the first five years of the new National Numeracy Strategy. It reports a limited longitudinal study of young children's early mathematical development, initially within three testing cycles: at the mid point and towards the end of their reception year (at five years of age) and again at the mid point of Year 1 (at six years of age). These cycles were located within the broader context of progress through to the end of Key Stage 1 (at seven years) and Key Stage 2 (at eleven years) on the basis of national standardised assessment tests (SATs). Results showed that children who bring into school early mathematical knowledge do appear to be advantaged in terms of their mathematical progress through primal T school. Numerical attainment increases in importance across the primal T years and practical problem solving remains an important element of this. This finding is significant given the current emphasis on numerical calculation in the English curriculum. It is concluded that without active intervention, it is likely that children with little mathematical knowledge at the beginning of formal schooling will remain low achievers throughout their primal T years and, probably, beyond.

Identifying Opportunities for Grade One Children to Acquire Foundational Number Sense: Developing a Framework for Cross Cultural Classroom Analyses

“…The quality of a child's number sense is a predictor of later mathematical success, both in the short (Aubrey and Godfrey 2003;Aunio and Niemivirta 2010) and the longer term (Aubrey et al 2006;Aunola et al 2004). For example, basic counting and enumeration skills have been found to predict arithmetical competence in, inter alia, Canada, England, Finland, Flanders, Taiwan and the USA respectively (LeFevre et al 2006;Aubrey and Godfrey 2003;Aunola et al 2004;Desoete et al 2009;Yang and Li 2008;Jordan et al 2007).…”

“…Thus, poorly developed number sense may lead to later mathematical failures Gersten et al 2005;Malofeeva et al 2004). Moreover, without appropriate intervention, which can be effective (Van Luit and Schopman 2000;Van Nes and Van Eerde 2010), children who start school with poor number sense are likely to remain low achievers throughout school (Aubrey et al 2006;Geary 2013). This is important in light of research that number sense acquisition may be linked to a child's family's socio-economic status in general (Melhuish et al 2008;Starkey et al 2004) and parental education levels in particular (Ivrendi 2011;Penner and Paret 2008).…”

Measurement in education

“…Especially, counting out loud (e. g. Aubrey et al, 2006;Jordan et al, 2009;Kolkman et al, 2013;Krajewski & Schneider, 2009;Passolunghi et al, 2007), other tasks of distinguishing different counting principles (e. g. Jordan et al, 2006), or number line tasks on the spatial representation of magnitude (e. g. Geary et al, 2009;Kolkman et al, 2013;Nuerk, Geppert, van Herten, & Willmes, 2002; are often assessed or theoretically considered. Although not exactly the same, the available items cover all the factors of number sense, which have been identified before (see e. g. Aunio et al, 2004;Aunio & Niemivirta, 2010;Kolkman et al, 2013).…”

“…Many longitudinal studies analyze the relevance of specific operational definition of numbers sense for later mathematic achievement (e. g. Aubrey, Godfrey, & Dahl, 2006;Aunio & Niemivirta, 2010;Jordan et al, 2010;Jordan, Kaplan, Locuniak, & Ramineni, 2007;Jordan, Kaplan, Ramineni, & Locuniak, 2009;Kolkman et al, 2013). Each article uses a different operationalization.…”

“…Those studies that cover longer time-spans (Aubrey et al, 2006;Jordan et al, 2009) suffer from small sample sizes (N<200).…”