Effects of Early Childhood Teacher Knowledge and Feedback on Children’s Early Mathematical Development in German Kindergartens

Abstract

Natural everyday situations can offer valuable opportunities for children to develop mathematical ideas. However, as children enter school with widely varying levels of achievement in mathematics, not all children seem to benefit equally from embedded math learning opportunities. To help children take advantage of these opportunities, early childhood (EC) teachers seem to play a significant role in fostering children’s mathematical learning. Previous research suggests that both the teacher’s knowledge and their feedback significantly influence the extent to which children learn. However, most studies on feedback rely on experimental research designs and do not examine naturally occurring feedback in situations involving embedded math learning opportunities. Thus, the influence of EC teachers’ mathematical pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) and their naturally given feedback on children’s mathematical learning remains underexplored. This paper investigates the effects of naturally given feedback and the MPCK of N = 48 EC teachers on the mathematical development of N = 140 children. Results indicate that process-related feedback positively impacts children’s mathematical development, while other kinds of feedback (e.g., person-related) and teachers’ MPCK do not demonstrate significant effects. These findings highlight the importance of integrating process-related feedback into professional development (PD) programs for EC teachers to enhance their ability to provide effective feedback.