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Invitation to the birthday party: rationale and description

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Abstract

Educators in many countries around the world have a strong interest in improving early childhood mathematics education, one component of which is formative assessment. Unlike summative assessment, this approach can provide teachers with information useful for understanding and teaching individual children. This paper describes the rationale for and the development of the birthday party (BP), a mathematics assessment system appropriate for investigating the mathematical thinking and learning of young children, 3-, 4-, and 5-years of age. The BP uses computer technology to help teachers administer the assessment. The system also provides professional development to help teachers understand the results of the assessment and determine how to promote individual children’s learning. The ultimate goal of the system is to nurture thoughtful teachers who can conduct inventive formative assessments on a daily basis without the guidance of the BP software.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Grant Number 1 R01 HD051538-01, to Herbert Ginsburg, principal investigator.

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  1. Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 W. 120 St., New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Herbert P. Ginsburg & Sandra Pappas

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  1. Herbert P. Ginsburg
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  2. Sandra Pappas
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Correspondence to Herbert P. Ginsburg.

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Ginsburg, H.P., Pappas, S. Invitation to the birthday party: rationale and description. ZDM Mathematics Education 48, 947–960 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-016-0818-4

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