Browsing by Author "Van nijlen, Daniel"

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Ecuadorian kindergartners’ numerical development: contribution of SES, quality of early mathematics education, and school type
(2018) Bojorque Iñegues, Gina Catalina; Torbeyns, Joke; Van nijlen, Daniel; Verschaffel, Lieven
This study aimed at analyzing the development of Ecuadorian children’s early numerical abilities during the Kindergarten year in relation to their SES, the quality of their early mathematics education, and the attended school type. 179 Ecuadorian Kindergartners (18 classrooms, 6 classrooms per school type) were offered a standards-based early numeracy test at both the start and the end of the Kindergarten year. In all classrooms, the quality of early mathematics education was assessed twice via the COEMET instrument. Results first showed rather low scores on the early numeracy test, with only 50% (at the start) up to 70% (at the end) of the items solved correctly, along with large inter-individual differences in these scores. Second, the quality of early mathematics education in the participating classrooms was also rather low. Third, children’s early numerical abilities at Kindergarten entry, SES, and school type predicted children’s early numerical abilities at the end of the school year. The quality of early mathematics education did not contribute to children’s numerical development. We critically discuss our findings in view of optimizing the quality of Ecuadorian early mathematics education as a stepping stone towards enhanced numerical development.
Ecuadorian kindergartners' spontaneous focusing on numerosity development: contribution of numerical abilities and quality of mathematics education
(Springer, 2018) Bojorque Iñegues, Gina Catalina; Torbeyns, Joke; Van nijlen, Daniel; Verschaffel, Lieven
Young children’s spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) predicts their later mathematical competencies. In this study we investigated the development of SFON in Ecuadorian kindergartners as well as the contribution of early numerical abilities and the quality of mathematics education to this development. The participants were 100 kindergartners coming from 10 classrooms. Children received two SFON tasks, one at the beginning and one at the end of the school year, and an early numerical abilities achievement test at the beginning of the school year. The quality of mathematics education was assessed twice via the COEMET instrument. Results demonstrated limited SFON development during the kindergarten year, with large individual differences in and highly consistent SFON performances. Additionally, children’s SFON development during the kindergarten year was predicted by their SFON tendency and early numerical abilities at the start of the year. The quality of mathematics education did not contribute to children’s SFON development. The scientific and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Effectiveness of the Building Blocks program for enhancing Ecuadorian kindergartners’ numerical competencies
(2018) Bojorque Iñegues, Gina Catalina; Torbeyns, Joke; Van Hoof, Jo; Van nijlen, Daniel; Verschaffel, Lieven
We investigated the effectiveness of the Building Blocks program for enhancing Ecuadorian kindergart-ners’ early numerical abilities and spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON), after controlling forworking memory, intelligence, age, and SES. Following a pretest-intervention-posttest design, 18 classescomprising 355 children from varied SES backgrounds were randomly assigned to either an experimental(BB program) or a control (regular mathematics program) condition. Results showed that the childrenfrom the experimental group made more progress in their early numerical competencies than thosefrom the control group. Furthermore, the BB program was associated with higher quality mathematicseducation. We discuss the theoretical and educational implications for early numeracy development ingeneral, and for the Ecuadorian situation in particular.