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Early Childhood Teachers’ Knowledge and Self-efficacy for Evaluating Solutions to Repeating Pattern Tasks

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Book cover Contemporary Research and Perspectives on Early Childhood Mathematics Education

Part of the book series: ICME-13 Monographs ((ICME13Mo))

Abstract

This study examines three aspects of early childhood teachers’ patterning knowledge: identifying features, errors and appropriate continuations of repeating patterns. Fifty-one practicing early childhood teachers’ self-efficacy is investigated in relation to performance on patterning tasks. Results indicated that teachers held high self-efficacy beliefs about solving patterning tasks correctly. Regarding performance, teachers were able to identify repeating patterns and errors in those patterns. However, when evaluating ways in which a repeating pattern may be continued, teachers found it more difficult to choose correct continuations for patterns that did not end with a complete unit of repeat than for those patterns that did. They tended to only choose continuations which would end the pattern with a complete unit of repeat. These results are discussed in light of findings from related previous studies.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by The Israel Science Foundation (grant No. 1270/14).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tel Aviv University, P.O. Box 39040, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Pessia Tsamir, Dina Tirosh, Esther S. Levenson & Ruthi Barkai

Authors
  1. Pessia Tsamir
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  2. Dina Tirosh
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  3. Esther S. Levenson
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  4. Ruthi Barkai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Esther S. Levenson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Iliada Elia

  2. Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Joanne Mulligan

  3. Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Ann Anderson

  4. Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Anna Baccaglini-Frank

  5. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Education Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Christiane Benz

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Tsamir, P., Tirosh, D., Levenson, E.S., Barkai, R. (2018). Early Childhood Teachers’ Knowledge and Self-efficacy for Evaluating Solutions to Repeating Pattern Tasks. In: Elia, I., Mulligan, J., Anderson, A., Baccaglini-Frank, A., Benz, C. (eds) Contemporary Research and Perspectives on Early Childhood Mathematics Education. ICME-13 Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73432-3_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73432-3_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73431-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73432-3

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