Can a game-based mathematics intervention improve preschool students’ mathematical thinking and persistence at challenging tasks? Young and Reed are examining the effectiveness of a professional development (PD) intervention in promoting low-income preschool children’s mastery motivation and mathematics learning. The intervention provides preschool teachers with effective strategies to support children’s growth mindset and mastery motivation through mathematics games and activities; study findings will advance knowledge of how schools and families can promote at-risk children’s mathematics learning and mastery motivation through guided play.
Specifically, the intervention was designed to: (1) facilitate preschool teachers’ understanding of children’s mathematics development through the use of developmentally appropriate, challenging, mathematics games and activities; (2) support teachers in providing emotionally-supportive interactions, through appropriate praise and feedback during mathematics; and (3) address teacher beliefs about the role of effort (growth mindset) in mathematics learning.
Research Questions
- Is the intervention effective at changing teacher outcomes and child outcomes?
- Do teachers’ beliefs about learning, teacher-child interaction, and use of challenging materials predict children’s mastery motivation?
- Do teachers’ beliefs about learning, teacher-child interaction, and use of challenging materials predict children’s mathematics learning?
- Do gains in mastery motivation predict gains in mathematics learning?
- Does mastery motivation mediate the relation of teachers’ beliefs about learning and teacher-child interaction to mathematics learning?