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Eric.ed.gov – Ethnic Differences in Early Math Learning: A Comparison of Chinese-American and Caucasian-American Families.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study compared Chinese-American and Caucasian-American children and families in order to better understand which cultural and family characteristics, parent beliefs, and parent practices operate at the early childhood level to produce the more uniform high level of math achievement among Asian-American children. Forty second-generation Chinese-American and 40 Caucasian-American preschoolers and kindergartners from well-educated, 2-parent families were given math, name writing, visual discrimination, spatial relation, and vocabulary measures. Parents completed questionnaires, interviews, and a social behaviors checklist. The study found that Chinese-American children outperformed Caucasian-American children on measures of mathematics, spatial relations, visual discrimination, numeral formation, and name writing. Caucasian-American children had higher scores on receptive English vocabulary. Chinese-American parents indicated a stronger belief in the role of hard work and early skill development in academic achievement,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Linking Life Experiences To Classroom Math.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Despite suggestions for incorporating students’ experiences into school math lessons, mathematics education seems to be the last bastion of formalism. This paper reports on a sociocultural study of the use of students’ personal experiences in early childhood elementary mathematics lessons. This study documents the use of students’ personal out-of-school experiences in classroom math and other subjects and investigates barriers that may prevent such linking. The following questions are addressed: (1) To what extent do teachers currently link school math and students’ personal out-of-school experiences? and (2) What influences the use of such linking? The study included observations of lessons in mathematics, language arts, and social studies in public, private, and homeschool settings. Despite recommendations in the literature, results showed that teachers rarely link students’ personal experiences to… Continue Reading