糖心原创

Perspectives and Practices across Countries and Cultures

In 2023 Dr Cath Gripton received RKE strategic funding from the School of Education to collaborate with three colleagues at Queen Maud's University in Trondheim, Norway. The project aimed to investigate:

1. What mathematics do practitioners in England and Norway notice in young children’s play?
2. What are practitioner perceptions of how they should develop the mathematics they see in young children’s child-initiated play?
3. When reflecting on the mathematics they see in young children’s child-initiated play, what do practitioners notice about their own mathematics practice?

Three practitioners in each country were interviewed, maintained reflective records of episodes of children’s mathematical play across a two-week period and then discussed their records in a stimulated recall interview. Practitioners were surprised at the breadth of play contexts where they observed mathematics being used and also the range of mathematical topics involved. Some reported concern that they might spoil the play by interacting and some expressed difficulties finding time to interact with children in this way. Practitioners had a broader understanding of what constituted play than the research team and recognised that they should go beyond curriculum expectations of young children’s mathematics. Supporting practitioners to notice mathematics in children’s play, supporting this through participating in children’s play and providing a structure for reflecting on the mathematics in children’s play seemed beneficial for the project participants. Three years later and this research has been included in a chapter in a new book, , published by the European Early Childhood Education Research Association.

Dr Gripton is a member of the Observatory for Mathematical Education.