Meeting in the Middle: Teacher-Facilitation of Play and Math Learning in Contemporary Kindergarten

Early math ability is a powerful predictor of future academic learning and opportunity (Duncan et al., 2007). To teach early math skills, many kindergarten programs world-wide endorse (Tafa, 2008), or mandate, play-based pedagogy (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2016), yet all play is not equal when it comes to math learning. Experimental evidence shows that a specific type of teacher-facilitated play, called guided play, leads to greater math learning gains than traditional approaches like direct instruction or free play (Fisher et al., 2013; Skene et al., 2022), however, classroom-based research shows that guided play is uncommon in practice (Wickstrom et al., 2019). Further work is needed to understand how teachers are successfully translating theory into practice by optimizing the middle ground of guided play to support early math learning.This study used qualitative inquiry and thematic analysis to respond to this central challenge. It began by collecting survey data to understand kindergarten educators’ perspectives regarding play, math, and the integration of play and math. Participants who described guiding play to support math were purposefully selected for follow up interviews. Results identified three key findings. First, the majority of educators described more indirect approaches to play and math learning in kindergarten, where children learn math through opportunities for free play without adult intervention. Conversely, only a minority of educators described more direct, or teacher-facilitated, approaches to math learning in kindergarten through various approaches to play and direct instruction. Second, educators who described these teacher-facilitated approaches also described evolving their conceptualizations of play and math learning into a singular and unified construct, that young children learn math through play. Third, this evolved perspective helped educators to then implement various approaches to guided play in practice. Implications of these findings point to a larger conversation about the need to move away from child-led approaches to early math learning and towards teacher-facilitated approaches instead. Importantly, this discussion will identify the key factors that educators leveraged to help them successfully transition towards teacher-facilitated approaches to math and will discuss what can be done to support more educators in also successfully making this transition.

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