Advancing Children's Mathematical Thinking in Everyday Mathematics Classrooms

TLDR

The article introduces the ACT framework, a pedagogical model designed to foster children’s conceptual understanding of mathematics. ACT was derived from an in‑depth analysis of a skilled first‑grade teacher’s use of the Everyday Mathematics curriculum and consists of three components—eliciting solution methods, supporting conceptual understanding, and extending mathematical thinking—then applied to five additional teachers. The study found that while teachers frequently supported children’s mathematical thinking, they rarely elicited or extended it, suggesting that the ACT framework could enhance teacher practice and inform curriculum design.

Abstract

In this article we present and describe a pedagogical framework that supports children's development of conceptual understanding of mathematics. The framework for Advancing Children's Thinking (ACT) was synthesized from an in-depth analysis of observed and reported data from 1 skillful 1st-grade teacher using the Everyday Mathematics (EM) curriculum. The ACT framework comprises 3 components: Eliciting Children's Solution Methods, Supporting Children's Conceptual Understanding, and Extending Children's Mathematical Thinking. The framework guided a cross-teacher analysis over 5 additional EM 1st-grade teachers. This comparison indicated that teachers often supported children's mathematical thinking but less often elicited or extended children's thinking. The ACT framework can contribute to educational research, teacher education, and the design of mathematics curricula.