Preschool Teacher Learning About Foundational Math Skills and Child-Specific Skill Development: A Window into Early Math

This dissertation examines how On Track Math (OTM), a formative math assessment system, supports preschool teachers in understanding early math, assessing children’s math skills, and leveraging that information to better support children’s math learning. The first chapter explores how OTM teachers describe changes in their own knowledge of early math skills, how teachers react to new information about child math skill, and how teachers describe their own instructional practices. In-depth interviews reveal shifts in teachers’ expectations of individual children’s math skill, knowledge of the skills that constitute early math, and awareness of math language. Furthermore, teachers who described reevaluating their expectations of child math skill and developing math language awareness also tended to have students with stronger math outcomes. Ultimately, this chapter highlights how direct assessment can encourage shifts in teachers’ Knowledge of Content and Students and expectancy beliefs about child math skill. The second chapter examines whether OTM teachers differ from control teachers in their likelihood of describing math-specific tailored support versus general support for individual children, and whether these tailored support descriptions predict child math outcomes. Through structured interviews with both OTM and control teachers, analyses show that OTM teachers are more likely than control teachers to describe tailored support rather than general support for individual children. Additionally, tailored support is positively associated with children’s Woodcock Johnson Math Reasoning scores. This chapter explores teachers’ growth in Knowledge of Content and Teaching as well as how teachers describe enacting tailored supports in their classrooms. This dissertation points to the importance of formative assessment in fostering preschool teacher learning. Ultimately, findings suggest that strong early math instruction may require teachers to reevaluate their expectations of child math skill, understand the skills that are part of early math, develop math language awareness, and tailor instruction to children’s skill level. Together, these forms of teacher knowledge and instructional tailoring may position teachers to better support children’s developing math skills.