TY - JOUR
T1 - Preschool children’s repeating patterning skills
T2 - evidence of their capability from a large scale, naturalistic, Australia wide study
AU - Larkin, Kevin
AU - Resnick, Ilyse
AU - Lowrie, Thomas
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the educators and young children that took part in the ELSA program. Findings discussed in this article are drawn from a larger data set generated in the ELSA project. The ELSA project is funded by the Australian Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Patterns are a fundamental component of mathematics, and the patterning ability of young children has been well researched; however, this research has largely been conducted with relatively small cohorts (±70) and in an interventionist way (in laboratory settings or with researchers directly intervening in educational contexts). The current study examines the patterning skills of approximately 3 200 children in a naturalistic setting. As part of a larger, early years’ STEM engagement program, children were provided patterning opportunities across one school term. The data presented here provides information regarding the children’s performance on the tablet-based activities embedded in the program. Findings indicate that 3.5- to 4.5-year-old children were able to copy, extend, insert missing elements, fix, and create patterns, using a range of two, three or four elements pattern structures. These findings, from a large-scale naturalistic setting, confirm some aspects of the existing laboratory-based research, whilst also indicating that some children are more capable in terms of creating patterns than the existing research suggests. These findings have implications for educators when they are planning play-based patterning activities with preschool children.
AB - Patterns are a fundamental component of mathematics, and the patterning ability of young children has been well researched; however, this research has largely been conducted with relatively small cohorts (±70) and in an interventionist way (in laboratory settings or with researchers directly intervening in educational contexts). The current study examines the patterning skills of approximately 3 200 children in a naturalistic setting. As part of a larger, early years’ STEM engagement program, children were provided patterning opportunities across one school term. The data presented here provides information regarding the children’s performance on the tablet-based activities embedded in the program. Findings indicate that 3.5- to 4.5-year-old children were able to copy, extend, insert missing elements, fix, and create patterns, using a range of two, three or four elements pattern structures. These findings, from a large-scale naturalistic setting, confirm some aspects of the existing laboratory-based research, whilst also indicating that some children are more capable in terms of creating patterns than the existing research suggests. These findings have implications for educators when they are planning play-based patterning activities with preschool children.
KW - conceptual development
KW - digital devices
KW - early childhood education
KW - Patterns
KW - play-based learning
KW - STEM
KW - tablets
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127274804&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10986065.2022.2056320
DO - 10.1080/10986065.2022.2056320
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85127274804
SN - 1098-6065
VL - 26
SP - 127
EP - 142
JO - Mathematical Thinking and Learning
JF - Mathematical Thinking and Learning
IS - 2
ER -