Abstract
High-quality instruction in preschool is important for children’s mathematical development. To date, the domain-specific elements constituting mathematics instruction quality and the factors associated with this quality are hardly studied, resulting in serious gaps in our insights into the topic. We aimed to address this gap by investigating (a) 43 preschool teachers’ mathematical questioning behavior during shared picture book reading, and (b) its association with picture book and teacher characteristics. We analyzed the number and the level of abstraction of mathematical questions when sharing a mathematical (i.e., written with explicit mathematical aim and content) and a non-mathematical (i.e., written without explicit mathematical aim and content) picture book, and their associations with teachers’ professional competence. For mathematical and non-mathematical picture books, teachers formulated mathematical questions, mainly at lower levels of abstraction. They formulated more, but proportionally less abstract, mathematical questions when sharing a mathematical versus a non-mathematical picture book. We found only limited evidence for associations between teachers’ questioning behavior and their professional competence. Our findings indicate that preschool teachers offer opportunities to engage in mathematical interaction during shared picture book reading, pointing to the potential of this activity to implement high-quality mathematics instruction. They further show that mathematical picture books enable more mathematical interaction than non-mathematical picture books, but not at higher levels of abstraction. Future studies are needed to replicate and complement our findings, with special attention for the contribution of teacher professional competence and the fit to children’s competency level.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
We included duration given its association with the number of mathematical questions (correlation analyses, Table 2). The regression model without duration as predictor was not significant, F(4, 38) = .41,, p = .80, adj r2 = -.06, and F(4, 38) = .84, p = .51, adj r2 = -.02, for, respectively, SPBR with a non-mathematical and mathematical picture book.
References
Barnes, E., & Puccioni, J. (2017). Shared book reading and preschool children’s academic achievement: Evidence from the early childhood longitudinal study-birth cohort. Infant and Child Development, 26(6), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2035
Benz, C. (2012). Attitudes of kindergarten educators about math. Journal Fur Mathematik-Didaktik, 33(2), 203–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13138-012-0037-7
Blank, M., Rose, S. A., & Berlin, L. J. (1978). The language of learning: The preschool years. Grune & Stratton.
Blewitt, P., Rump, K. M., Shealy, S. E., & Cook, S. A. (2009). Shared book reading: When and how questions affect young children’s word learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(2), 294–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013844
Blömeke, S., Hsieh, F., Kaiser, G., & Schmidt, W. (Eds.). (2014). International perspectives on teacher knowledge, beliefs and opportunities to learn. Springer.
Blömeke, S., Jentsch, A., Ross, N., Kaiser, G., & König, J. (2022). Opening up the black box: Teacher competence, instructional quality, and students’ learning progress. Learning and Instruction, 79, Article 101600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101600
Burchinal, M. (2018). Measuring early care and education quality. Child Development Perspectives, 12(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12260
Carr, R. C., Mokrova, I. L., Vernon-Feagans, L., & Burchinal, M. R. (2019). Cumulative classroom quality during pre-kindergarten and kindergarten and children’s language, literacy, and mathematics skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 218–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.12.010
Cerezci, B. (2020). Mining the gap: Analysis of early mathematics instructional quality in pre-kindergarten classrooms. Early Education and Development, 39(3), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2020.1775438
Charalambous, C. Y., & Praetorius, A.-K. (2018). Studying mathematics instruction through different lenses: Setting the ground for understanding instructional quality more comprehensively. ZDM Mathematics Education, 50(3), 355–366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-018-0914-8
Clements, D. H., Lizcano, R., & Sarama, J. (2023). Research and pedagogies for early math. Education Sciences, 13(8), 839. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080839
Cohrssen, C., & Church, A. (2017). Conversation analysis: Analyzing talk-in-interaction with preschool children during play-based mathematics activities. In Sage Research Methods Cases Part 2. SAGE Publications, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526414021
De Keyser, L., Bakker, M., Rathé, S., Wijns, N., Torbeyns, J., Verschaffel, L., & De Smedt, B. (2020). No association between the home math environment and numerical and patterning skills in a large and diverse sample of 5- to 6-year-olds. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Art.No. 547626. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.547626. 1-13.
Depaepe, F., Verschaffel, L., & Star, J. (2020). Expertise in developing future preschool teachers’ expertise in mathematics: Bridging teachers’ professional knowledge and instructional quality. ZDM Mathematics Education, 52(2), 179–192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-020-01148-8
Departement Onderwijs en Vorming. (2016). Onderzoek naar Kleuterparticipatie: eindrapport. Brussel: Vlaams Ministerie van Onderwijs en Vorming. https://onderwijs.vlaanderen.be/sites/default/files/atoms/files/Eindrapport_Onderzoek_naar_kleuterparticipatie.pdf
Duncan, G., Kalil, A., Mogstad, M., & Rege, M. (2022). Investing in early childhood development in preschool and at home. NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 29985, http://www.nber.org/papers/w29985
Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C. J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A. C., Klebanov, P., Pagani, L. S., Feinstein, L., Engel, M., Brooks-Gunn, J., Sexton, H., Duckworth, K., & Japel, C. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1428–1446. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1428
Dunekacke, S., Jegodtka, A., Koinzer, T., Eilerts, K., & Jenßen, L. (2021). Introduction. In S. Dunekacke, A. Jegodtka, T. Koinzer, K. Eilerts, & L. Jenßen (Eds.), Early childhood teachers’ professional competence in mathematics: International perspectives (pp. 1–6). Routledge.
Gasteiger, H., & Benz, C. (2018). Enhancing and analyzing kindergarten teachers’ professional knowledge for early mathematics education. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 51, 109–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2018.01.002
Hennessy, S., Rojas-Drummond, S., Higham, R., Márquez, A. M., Maine, F., Ríos, R. M., Garcia-Carrion, R., Torreblanca, O., & Barrera, M. J. (2016). Developing a coding scheme for analysing classroom dialogue across educational contexts. Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 9, 16–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2015.12.001
Hojnoski, R. L., Polignano, J., & Columba, H. L. (2016). Increasing teacher mathematical talk during shared book reading in the preschool classroom: A pilot study. Early Education and Development, 27(5), 676–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2016.1102018
Houen, S., Thorpe, K., van Os, D., Westwood, E., Toon, D., & Staton, S. (2022). Eliciting and responding to young children’s talk: A systematic review of educators’ interactional strategies that promote rich conversations with children aged 2–5 years. Educational Research Review, 37, Article 100473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100473
Howard, S. J., Siraj, I., Melhuish, E. C., Kingston, D., Neilsen-Hewett, C., de Rosnay, M., Duursma, E., & Luu, B. (2018). Measuring interactional quality in pre-school settings: Introduction and validation of the sustained shared thinking and emotional wellbeing (SSTEW) scale. Early Child Development and Care, 190(7), 1017–1030. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2018.1511549
Jacobi-Vessels, J. L., Brown, E. T., Molfese, V. J., & Do, A. (2016). Teaching preschoolers to count: Effective strategies for achieving early mathematics milestones. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-014-0671-4
Lehrl, S., Kluczniok, K., Rossbach, H.-G., & Anders, Y. (2017). Long term persistence of preschool intervention on children’s mathematical development. Results from the German model project Kindergarten of the Future in Bavaria. Global Education Review, 4(3), 70–87.
LVS-VCLB. (2017). Leerlingvolgsysteem wiskunde: toetsen 5–6 – basisboek [Student monitoring system: test 5–6 - guide]. Garant.
Mascareño, M., Snow, C. E., Deunk, M. I., & Bosker, R. J. (2016). Language complexity during read-alouds and kindergartners’ vocabulary and symbolic understanding. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 44, 39–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2016.02.001
McGuire, P. R., Kinzie, M., Thunder, K., & Berry, R. (2016). Methods of analysis and overall mathematics teaching quality in at-risk prekindergarten classrooms. Early Education and Development, 27(1), 89–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2015.968241
Mol, S. E., Bus, A. G., & de Jong, M. T. (2009). Interactive book reading in early education: A tool to stimulate print knowledge as well as oral language. Review of Educational Research, 79(2), 979–1007. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654309332561
Nicolopoulou, A., Hale, E., Leech, K., Weinraub, M., & Maurer, G. (2023). Shared picturebook reading in a preschool class: Promoting narrative comprehension through inferential talk and text difficulty. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-023-01497-5
Op ‘t Eynde, E., Depaepe, F., Van Den Noortgate, W., Verschaffel, L., & Torbeyns, J. (2022b). Future preschool teachers’ mathematical questions during shared book reading. European Journal of Psychology of Education.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-022-00664-3
Op ‘t Eynde, E., Depaepe, F., Verschaffel, L., & Torbeyns, J. (2022a). Shared picture book reading in early mathematics: a systematic literature review. Journal für Mathematik-Didaktik, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13138-022-00217-7
Pohle, L., Hosoya, G., Pohle, J., & Jenßen, L. (2022). The relationship between early childhood teachers’ instructional quality and children’s mathematics development. Learning and Instruction, 82, 101636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101636
Purpura, D. J., Napoli, A. R., Wehrspann, E. A., & Gold, Z. S. (2017). Causal connections between mathematical language and mathematical knowledge: A dialogic reading intervention. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10(1), 116–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2016.1204639
Ritchie, S. J., & Bates, T. C. (2013). Enduring links from childhood mathematics and reading, achievement to adult socioeconomic status. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1301–1308. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612466268
Ryoo, J. H., Molfese, V. J., & Brown, E. T. (2018). Strategies to encourage mathematics learning in early childhood: Discussions and brainstorming promote stronger performance. Early Education and Development, 29(4), 603–617. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2018.1442095
Salminen, J., Pakarinen, E., Poikkeus, A.-M., & Lerkkanen, M.-K. (2018). Development of pre-academic skills and motivation in kindergarten: A subgroup analysis between classroom quality profiles. Research Papers in Education, 33(4), 515–543. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2017.1353673
Schlesinger, L., & Jentsch, A. (2016). Theoretical and methodological challenges in measuring instructional quality in mathematics education using classroom observations. ZDM Mathematics Education, 48(1), 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-016-0765-0
Torbeyns, J., Demedts, F., & Depaepe, F. (2021). Preschool teachers’ mathematical pedagogical content knowledge and self-reported classroom activities. In S. Dunekacke, A. Jegodtka, T. Koinzer, K. Eilerts, & L. Jenßen (Eds.), Early childhood teachers’ professional competence in mathematics: International perspectives (pp. 30–45). Routledge.
Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, M., Elia, I., & Robitzsch, A. (2016). Effects of reading picture books on kindergartners’ mathematics performance. Educational Psychology, 36(2), 323–346. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2014.963029
Van Kleeck, A., Gillam, R. B., Hamilton, L., & McGrath, C. (1997). The relationship between middle-class parents’ book-sharing discussion and their preschoolers’ abstract language development. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 40(6), 1261–1271. https://doi.org/10.1044/jslhr.4006.1261
Vygotskij, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
Walsh, R. L., & Hodge, K. A. (2018). Are we asking the right questions? An analysis of research on the effect of teachers’ questioning on children’s language during shared book reading with young children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 18(2), 264–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798416659124
Wijns, N., Purpura, D., & Torbeyns, J. (2022). Stimulating preschoolers’ repeating patterning ability by means of dialogic picture book reading. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000756
Wullschleger, A., Lindmeier, A., Heinze, A., Meier-Wyder, A., Leuchter, M., Vogt, F., & Moser Opitz, E. (2023). Improving the quality of adaptive learning support provided by kindergarten teachers in play-based mathematical learning situations. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 31(2), 225–242. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2022.2081348
Zucker, T. A., Cabell, S. Q., Justice, L. M., Pentimonti, J. M., & Kaderavek, J. N. (2013). The role of frequent, interactive prekindergarten shared reading in the longitudinal development of language and literacy skills. Developmental Psychology, 49(8), 1425–1439. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030347
Zucker, T. A., Justice, L. M., Piasta, S. B., & Kaderavek, J. N. (2010). Preschool teachers’ literal and inferential questions and children’s responses during whole-class shared reading. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25(1), 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.07.001
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Eva Hoekx and Kim Van Steertegem for their assistance during data collection. This research was supported by Grant ZKD6093—STG/18/046, picture books and mathematics, from the Research Fund KU Leuven, Belgium.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The manuscript has not been previously published and has not been submitted simultaneously elsewhere. We have no potential conflicts of interest to declare.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Torbeyns, J., Op ’t Eynde, E., Depaepe, F. et al. Preschool teachers’ mathematical questions during shared picture book reading. ZDM Mathematics Education (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-023-01544-w
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-023-01544-w