Adapting a school numeracy project for early childhood play based learning

Abstract

The New Zealand Early Childhood curriculum is based on a play-based holistic approach to learning centred around supporting, and building on, the child,s interests. This is in contrast to the more formal classroom instruction prevalent in New Zealand primary schools centred on a curriculum that sets out subject specific goals. For school mathematics the development of a research based numeracy teaching/learning programme led to the construction of an oral diagnostic assessment instrument and frameworks setting out detailed progression stages in the knowledge and strategies necessary for children,s numeracy learning. School entry (age five) data gathered using the instrument as part of the implementation of the programme revealed variable levels of knowledge and skills in aspects of numeracy, but more importantly that these were often far more advanced than anticipated by the school curriculum. For example, in the Numeral identification progression 17% of children recognise numbers to 100 and a further 15% numbers to 1000. This data provides clear evidence that current early childhood experiences can and do impact on children,s readiness for further numeracy learning in school environments. The detail gained from the data can be used to indicate particular aspects of numeracy learning that could be enhanced within early childhood settings; firstly, by the linking of the numeracy programme terminology to the mathematics language of the early childhood curriculum for teachers, and secondly, by the use of the activities (eg. games) and the child-centred approaches designed for use within schools which would not compromise the play-based holistic approaches of the early childhood curriculum.