A B E R D E E N B U S I N E S S S C H O O L

Course Work Submission Form

Name: Alastair Menzies

Email: damenzie154@hotmail.com

Course: Information and Library Studies

Module: BSM050

Assignment and Title:

Subject Bibliography: Early Years Mathematics Education

Date: 14th December 2012

For the

attention of:

Elizabeth Tait

Before submitting ensure: (a) that the work undertaken for this assignment is entirely your own and that you have not made use of any unauthorised assistance;

(b) that the sources of all references material have been properly acknowledge.

BY SUBMITTING THIS DOCUMENT YOU ARE CONFIRMING

STATEMENTS (a) AND (b) ABOVE.

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Subject Bibliography for Early Childhood Mathematics Education and Information

Skills Guide for Teachers

December 2012

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Contents

1.0 Introduction 4

1.1 Parameters 4

1.2 Sources 4

1.3 Arrangement 4

1.4 Evaluation and Selection 5

2.0 Subject Bibliography 6

2.1 Overview of Early Years Mathematics Education 6

2.2 Current state of Early Years Mathematics Education 7

2.3 Best practices and Improving 8

2.4 Assessment of maths in early years 9

3.0 Introduction to the Information Skills Guide 10

3.1 Browsing as a search strategy 11

3.2 Developing a robust search strategy 14

3.3 Practical search example: Web Search 17

3.4 Practical search example: Library Catalogue 19

3.5 Practical search example: Database 21

4.0 References 23

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1.0 Introduction

This Subject Bibliography will cover the subject of teaching and assessing

mathematics in the early years of a child's development. It will provide resources

which will assist teachers and others involved in the curriculum building process to

determine the best practices of teaching and methods of assessment as part of an

early years curriculum.

1.1 Parameters

This bibliography will be compiled using resources published in English. It offers an

update to an existing bibliography and considers resources from the period of 2007-

2012. As the intended users of this bibliography are teachers from the UK, resources

which refer specifically to the education systems of the UK will be preferred, although

in some sections where the focus is not so specific resources from other locations

have also been included.

1.2 Sources

This bibliography will be complied using resources located using web gateways such as

Intute and BUBL UK, academic journal databases such as Science Direct and the

Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge, and the British Library Integrated Catalogue.

Given the informations seeking habits of the user group, some resources have also

been located using web search engines such as Google UK. Guidance is provided

within the Information Skills Guide for all of these sources in order to enable the user

to perform their own searches successfully.

1.3 Arrangement

The bibliography has been laid out in distinct sections in order to aid the user in

locating resources relevant to their current requirements. The first section will contain

a general overview of mathematics teaching in the early years and demonstrations its

importance. This will be followed by a section relating to the current state of early

years mathematics teaching within the UK. The third section will contain resources

designed to assist teachers in improving the provision of mathematics teaching in

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their institution or consortium. The final section will contain resources and critiques

on the subject of testing during the early years of mathematics education.

1.4 Evaluation and Selection

In general, teachers have reported being comfortable using computers and the

internet to find the majority of their resources to plan and develop their teaching

(Smerdon, Cronen, Lanahan, Anderson, Iannotti and Angeles 2000). Teachers

recognise that journal articles are generally more reliable but due to time constraints

tend to rely on open internet searches more often (Williams, Grimble and Irwin 2004).

Carlson and Reidy (2004 p. 67) have found that:

When asked to choose the two resources that they use most for curriculum

planning, from a given list, a majority of educators chose textbooks (61

percent) and websites (61 percent).

With these factors in mind, the resources selected for this bibliography include some

websites and textbooks for preliminary planning and curriculum development, as well

as reports and journal articles where there is a need to delve deeper into the topic.

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2.0 Subject Bibliography

Topic: Early Years Mathematics Education

2.1 Overview of Early Years Mathematics Education

NEW, R. S., & COCHRAN, M., 2007. Early childhood education: an international

encyclopedia. Westport, Conn: Praeger Publishers.

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION, 2012. The School Curriculum: Early Years Foundation

Stage[online]. Cheshire: Department for Education. Available from:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/a0068102/early

-years-foundation-stage-eyfs [Accessed 13 December 2012].

SARACHO, O. N., & SPODEK, B., 2008. Contemporary perspectives on mathematics in

early childhood education. Charlotte, NC: IAP/Information Age Pub.

MONTAGUE-SMITH, A., PRICE, A., & MONTAGUE-SMITH, A., 2012. Mathematics in

early years education. London: Routledge.

THOMPSON, I., 2008. Teaching and learning early number. Maidenhead: Open

University Press.

LINDER, S., POWERS-COSTELLO, B. and STEGELIN, D., 2011. Mathematics in Early

Childhood: Research-Based Rationale and Practical Strategies. Early Childhood

Education Journal, 39(1), pp. 29-37.

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2.2 Current state of Early Years Mathematics Education

WILLIAMS, P., 2008. Independent Review of Mathematics Teaching in Early Years

Settings and Primary Schools[online]. Cheshire: Department for Education. Available

from: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Williams

%20Mathematics.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2012].

GEORGE, A., STOKES, L. and WILKINSON, D., 2012. Does Early Education Influence

Key Stage 1 Attainment? Evidence for England from the Millennium Cohort Study.

National Institute Economic Review, 222(1), pp. R67-R80.

MERRELL, C. and TYMMS, P., 2011. Changes in childrens cognitive development at the

start of school in England 20012008. Oxford Review of Education, 37(3), pp. 333-

345.

NAH, K., 2011. A comparative study of mathematics education practices in English and

Korean preschools focusing on implementation of curriculum content. Kedi Journal of

Educational Policy, 8(1), pp. 81-98.

AUNIO, P., AUBREY, C., GODFREY, R., PAN, Y. and LIU, Y., 2008. Childrens early

numeracy in England, Finland and Peoples Republic of China. International Journal of

Early Years Education, 16(3), pp. 203-221.

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2.3 Best practices and Improving

RODGER, R., 2012. Planning an appropriate curriculum in the early years: a guide for

early years practitioners and leaders, students and parents. Abingdon, U.K.:

Routledge.

POUND, L., 2008. Thinking and learning about mathematics in the early years.

London: Routledge.

POUND, L., & LEE, T., 2011. Teaching mathematics creatively. London: Routledge.

MCGRATH, C., 2010. Supporting early mathematical development: practical

approaches to play-based learning. London: Routledge.

HUGHES, A. M., 2009. Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy in the early years

foundation stage. London: Routledge.

BRIGGS, M., & DAVIS, S., 2007. Creative teaching: mathematics in the early years &

primary classroom. London: David Fulton.

BENNETT, E., & WEIDNER, J., 2012. Everyday maths through everyday provision:

developing opportunities for mathematics in the early years. London: Routledge.

TES, 2012. Early Years Foundation Stage teaching resources[online]. London: TES.

Available from: http://www.tes.co.uk/early-years-teaching-resources/ [Accessed 13

December 2012].

AUBREY, C. and DURMAZ, D., 2012. Policy-to-practice contexts for early childhood

mathematics in England. International Journal of Early Years Education, 20(1), pp. 59-

77.

OZDOGAN, E., 2011. Play, mathematic and mathematical play in early childhood

education. 3rd World Conference on Educational Sciences (2011), 15, pp. 3118-3120.

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2.4 Assessment of maths in early years

NUTBROWN, C., 2011. Key concepts in early childhood education and care. London:

SAGE Publications.

GLAZZARD, J., 2010. Assessment for learning in the early years foundation stage.

London: SAGE Publications.

WRIGHT, R. J., MARTLAND, J., & STAFFORD, A. K., 2008. Early numeracy: assessment

for teaching and intervention. Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE Publications.

SARGENT, M., 2011. Assessment for learning in the foundation stage. London:

Featherstone Education.

RIDDALL-LEECH, S., 2008. How to observe children. Oxford: Heinemann Educational

Publishers.

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3.0 Introduction to the Information Skills Guide

When teachers seek information, their main concern is generally the amount of time

any searching will require. Research has shown that due to this limitation, teachers

will rarely form a search strategy and a majority will be happy to rely on the first few

resources found in any search (Liu and Huo 2012). Teachers will make use of

different forms of delivery, with the most common used being textbooks and websites.

They recognise that journal articles are generally more reliable but again due to time

constraints tend to rely on open internet searches more often (Williams, Grimble and

Irwin 2004).

With the large amount of information available, especially when journal articles are

considered, it is easy to be overwhelmed when beginning any search for information.

Often teachers will rely on word of mouth from colleagues or on sources

recommended within their school or local area (Williams and Coles 2007). With the

aid of a developed search strategy hopefully some of this behaviour could be adapted

and the experience for teachers seeking information improved. This change in

approach could also lead to teachers using more varied forms of information delivery

as confidence improves.

This bibliography needs also to consider the needs of newer teachers, who although

often more familiar than more experienced teachers with a lot of the technology

required, are not necessarily any more comfortable consulting external sources of

information, preferring to rely on lecture notes and verbal communication with

classmates and lecturers (Shanmugan 1999).

This guide will first go through the stages of forming a search strategy, before

demonstrating it's use in different environments. Better web searching via Google will

be considered, as well as searching a library catalogue and journal database. Finally,

the barriers and problems facing teachers in these environments will be considered

and some solutions to these suggested.

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3.1 Browsing as a search strategy

Early in the search for information, browsing can be a useful technique to employ.

Browsing involves exploring from a starting point and making use of links and lists to

locate resources that may be of interest to the user within their subject area. It is

especially appropriate for ill-defined problems and for exploring new task domains

(Marchionini and Shneiderman 1988 p. 71). Using this method a seeker for

information on a subject can gain a broad perspective on the topic, as well as

identifying and clarifying areas for possible further study and investigation. It can be

used alone by browsing from a known starting point or combined with other

information seeking activities (Bates 1989). Another benefit to using this technique is

that the user does not need to have deep knowledge of the subject matter or

terminology used in the field in order to obtain useful information.

As an example of this technique, a good starting point for a browsing information

search could be a web gateway, such as that shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The home page of Intute, a web gateway, with the link for 'Education and

research methods' highlighted.

On the home page, the user can select from a number of broader categories in order

to pursue their browsing search. In this case, the option for 'Education and research

methods' can be selected.

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From here, the user can narrow down their search further by selecting the subject

area they are most interested in (Figure 2). This stage also offers an overview of

other areas connected to the initial goal that can be explored if the searcher wishes.

In this example the link for Pre-school education has been highlighted.

Figure 2. The Education and research methods page on the Intute web gateway, with

the link for 'Pre-school education' highlighted.

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Figure 3. The list of resources relating to Pre-school education on the Intute web

gateway, located by browsing.

Figure 3 shows the list of resources located in the Pre-school education section of the

Intute web gateway. These can be evaluated by the searcher and any deemed of

interest can then be investigated further. Two items from this particular gateway are

included in the Subject Bibliography, but others may still be of interest to the user and

there are other gateways of this type.

Browsing is a good method of information seeking, but should not be relied upon as

the only strategy. It can offer a good overview but is generally slower and less

comprehensive than an analytical search strategy. It is also easy to become

distracted when searching unless the user has developed particularly good habits

which teachers have highlighted as a major concern while information seeking

(Nachmias and Gilad 2002).

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3.2 Developing a robust search strategy

When beginning an analytical search process, it is important to design the search to

obtain the most relevant results. Returning a large amount of results can superficially

seem a success, but without a proper search design these are likely to contain a large

number of examples which are only vaguely or not at all connected to the desired

topic. Trawling through a large number of results would be extremely time consuming

and expensive and can be avoided by proper planning prior to carrying out the search.

Once a user has determined a subject, the next step in design is to determine the

search terms or concepts. Applied to the Subject Bibliography of early childhood

mathematics education, there are three initial search concepts:

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3

Early childhood Mathematics Education

These concepts should be arranged in order of importance to the query, which in this

case would not result in any changes as the most important concepts are the correct

stage in child development and the subject of mathematics.

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3

Essential Essential Desirable

Early childhood Mathematics Education

Next the user should consider the time period and any additional concept

requirements. In this case, the time period is the last 5 years, and the specification is

to find resources published in English, preferably based on the education systems of

the UK.

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3 Concept 4 Concept 5 Concept 6

Essential Essential Desirable Time Period Language Desirable

Early

childhood

Mathematics Education 2007-2012 English UK based

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Figure 4. Online thesaurus results for the term mathematics.

At this stage it is important to consider any synonyms. Using a thesaurus is a good

way to ensure no obvious terms are missed, as well as any reference guides on the

subject (Figure 4).

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3 Concept 4 Concept 5 Concept 6

Term 1 Essential Essential Desirable Time

Period

Language Desirable

Term 2 Early

childhood

Mathematics Education 2007-2012 English UK based

Term 3 Early years Numeracy Learning

Term 4 Pre-school

The next step is to consider any truncation and wildcards the user may wish to

employ, as well as deciding whether any terms specified need to occur in close

proximity. At this point it is important to determine which database is most

appropriate to search, as in a lot of cases the actual symbols used are different and

the help files for that particular database should be consulted. The user can also add

the Boolean operators which can be used if allowed by a database search. In this

example, the search will be carried out using the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge,

so the search table is now finalised:

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'NEAR' 'NEAR' 'AND' 'AND' 'AND'

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3 Concept 4 Concept 5 Concept 6

Term 1 Essential Essential Desirable Time

Period

Language Desirable

'OR' Term 2 Early

childhood

Math* Education 2007-

2012

English UK based

'OR' Term 3 Early

years

Numer* Learning

'OR' Term 4 Pre$school Teaching

This would provide the following search term to enter into the Web of Knowledge

search engine: (Early childhood OR Early years OR Pre$school) NEAR (Math* OR

Numer*) NEAR (Education OR Learning OR Teaching). Figure 5 shows the results of

this search, which initially returned 136 results then further narrowed to show results

in English based in the UK using the options available.

Figure 5. An example of results from a search using the Thomson Reuters Web of

Knowledge.

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3.3 Practical search example: Web Search (Google UK)

As the user habits of teachers display a tendency to use open web searches ahead of

journal databases or library catalogues, it is important to consider how best to utilise

the common web search sites in order to get the most appropriate results returned.

In this specific example, a Google search on the 'early childhood mathematics

education' query is shown. A simple search on the Subject Bibliography title returns

33 million results, and a quick scan of these shows a significant number of these

focussed on countries other than the UK. In order to narrow this down, the Google

Advanced Search will allow the user to specify more exact terms for some elements of

our search, as well as allowing users to limit the results to recent documents and

resources and also to consider synonyms (Figure 6). The Boolean command OR can

be used to search for a document containing any reference to the age range, and the

~ symbol can be used to search for synonyms for mathematics and education.

Figure 6. The Google Advanced Search page displaying a search using synonym

operators and Boolean commands.

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When the search above is carried out, there are a number of far more relevant

resources returned (Figure 7). As can be seen in this example, it is also easy to

browse from this search into the Google Scholar search, which will allow the user to

find academic based resources.

Figure 7. Google search results using the Advanced Search.

Using a web search such as Google has both benefits and drawbacks. While Google

has been shown to perform very well in terms of accessibility of results in comparison

to libraries and databases, the quality of results can be poorer, especially beyond the

top 4 returned by any search (Brophy and Bawden 2005).

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3.4 Practical search example: Library Catalogue (British Library Integrated

Catalogue)

As teachers have been shown to rely on textbooks in development of a teaching

curriculum, it is important to be able to search library catalogues to retrieve the most

useful hardcopy resources. Using the search table developed above and using the

British Library as an example, an effective search can be conducted. As with most

search engines, the advanced search on the British Library has it's own help files

which should be consulted before finalising search queries in order to minimise the

time spent. In this case Figure 8 shows the search terms used and the results

returned. These have been narrowed down using the limit options found to the left of

the search results to display hardcopy items published in the last 5 years in English,

and further limitations can be applied if required.

Figure 8. A search of the British Library Integrated Catalogue, with results.

In contrast to the web search in the previous section, one of the problems in carrying

out a search for library based material may be it's lack of accessibility, especially at

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short notice. It can often be time consuming to track down and obtain copies of

library material, particularly if items are older or more obscure. This is also a problem

with grey material that can sometimes be located with library searches, such as video

or audio recordings.

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3.5 Practical search example: Database (Science Direct)

While teachers have been shown to rely on academic journals infrequently, they

recognise that journal articles are often the most reliable source of information

(Williams, Grimble and Irwin 2004). For this reason, it is important to have a sound

strategy to locate relevant articles using online databases in order to minimise the

time spent searching for information. In this example, a search has been conducted

using Science Direct. Again the help files were consulted, and using the search table

a search query was defined and entered, along with limitations for articles published

within the last 5 years. The results were then further limited using the options on the

left hand side if this is appropriate. In this case they have been limited to the topics

that immediately concern this Subject Bibliography (Figure 9).

Figure 9. A search on Science Direct for journal articles, limited to topics of interest.

The problems encountered when attempting to locate information using databases of

academic journals have already been touched upon in the earlier discussion on search

strategy, but can be summarised as the difficulty of dealing with the differences

between each database. A new user to any database site will have little success with

a search that has not been properly planned in advance, may lose heart and is likely

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to fall back on a more accessible searching method such as a web search. This

problem can be overcome by consulting the help files of each database encountered

before finalising the search terms used, and using the techniques above to create a

robust search model that can be adapted to any new database.

In all of the search examples above, it can be easy to become overloaded by

information, especially on the initial return. This can be lessened somewhat by the

limit tools available in almost every search engine, whether for databases or for the

internet. These tools enable the user both to obtain a more manageable amount of

data and to ensure that the results are more specific to the intended topic.

Each of the methods defined above has its place in an information search, and

ultimately it will be the user's choice as to which strategies and sources are consulted.

It is clear, however, that the best results are obtained when the user is willing and

able to utilise a wide variety of these to satisfy their information seeking needs.

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4.0 References

BATES, M.J., 1989. The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the on-line search interface. Online Review, 13, pp. 407431.

BROPHY, J. and BAWDEN, D., 2005. Is Google enough? Comparison of an internet search engine with academic library resources. Aslib Proceedings, 57(6), pp. 498-512.

CARLSON, B. and REIDY, S., 2004. Effective access: teachers' use of digital resources (research in progress). OCLC Systems & Services, 20(2), pp. 65-70.

LIU, G.Z. and HUO, Y., 2012. Information behaviors of Chinese K-12 physical education teachers: A survey study. Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science, 5(1), pp. 11-33.

MARCHIONINI, G. and SHNEIDERMAN, B., 1988. Finding Facts vs. Browsing Knowledge in Hypertext Systems. Computer, 21(1), pp. 70-80.

NACHMIAS, R. and GILAD, A., 2002. Needle in a Hyperstack: Searching Information on the World Wide Web. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(4), pp. 475-486.

SHANMUGAN, A., 1999. Information seeking behaviour of trainee teachers in selected teacher training colleges in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Library and Information Science, 4(1), pp. 1-26.

SMERDON, B., CRONEN, S., LANAHAN, L., ANDERSON, J., IANOTTI, N., and ANGELES, J., 2000. Teachers' tools for the 21st century: A report on teachers' use of technology[online]. Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Available from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000102.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2012]

WILLIAMS, D. and COLES, L., 2007. Teachers' approaches to finding and using research evidence: an information literacy perspective. Educational Research, 49(2), pp. 185-206.

WILLIAMS, T., GRIMBLE, B., and IRWIN, M., 2004. Teachers link to electronic resources: A case study of awareness, knowledge, and influence. School Library Media Research, July 2004.

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