Article

A Study on the Early Childhood Mathematics Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices in Support of the Goals and Contents of Early Childhood Mathematics Education

Author

Yeon Sim Moon,Hwa Young Lee

Information

pp. 67~92 / 2011 Vol.5 No.2

Abstract

This research was conducted to identify relationships between the teachers’ perceptions of thegoals and contents for the early childhood mathematics education and their practices insupport of them. Also, differences were examined in the teachers’ perceptions and practicesbetween the subgroups by teacher’s education and the ages of the children under their care.A questionnaire survey was conducted among a total of 132 early childhood mathematicsteachers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, and its results are as follows: (1) in terms ofthe teachers’ perceptions of the goals and contents of early childhood mathematics education,the perceptions of the teachers with higher educational levels and of those who were in chargeof older children were higher; (2) with regard to the teachers’ practices in support of the goalsand contents of early childhood mathematics education, the practices of the teachers withhigher educational levels and of those who were in charge of older children were higher; and(3) it was found that the teachers generally did not realize the necessity of evaluation in earlychildhood mathematics education, and that the teaching method that was mainly used by theearly childhood mathematics teachers was manipulative play or games. Along with the mainresults of this study, implications for research and practice are discussed.

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