Investigating the structure, level and development of professional skills of preschool teachers in mathematics

Because of unlike development in pre-school children enter compulsory school with different levels of mathematical competence (Selter, in 1995; Grassmann et al., in 2000; Hasemann, in 2001). These differences explain much of children’s diverse development of achievement in mathematics at school (Stern, in 1998; Krajewski/Schneider, in 2006; Dornheim, in 2008), in-cluding the prediction of dyscalculia (Aunola et al., in 2004). Important factors of children’s mathematical development in kindergarten are children’s everyday experiences (Thiel, in 2008), the family’s socio-economic status (Jencks/Phillips, in 1998; Klibanoff et al., in 2006; Thiel, in press), children’s language abilities (Reikerås, in 2007) and the kindergarten’s ability to facilitate a cognitive stimulating learning environment as well as substantial opportunities for learning mathematics (Krogh/Slentz, in 2001; Warfield, in 2001; Greenes/Ginsburg/Balfanz, in 2004; Roßbach et al., in 2008). Positive effects are expected in particular for children from lower social classes (McDill/Natriello, in 2000). To enhance children’s mathematical abilities it is important that the kindergarten teacher knows about the child’s level of development and zone of next development (Vygotsky, in 1987), as well as to recognise learning opportunities in the kindergarten’s everyday life and use them to support the children’s learning. Up to now there are very few empirical studies that measure the teacher’s competences which are necessary to do this (Grüßing, in 2009; National Mathematics Advisory Panel, in 2008). Especially the competence of teachers who were trained on (post) sec-ondary level is very weak (Frey, in 2002). The few present studies let assume that those teachers in particular underestimate the level and the complexity of the children’s mathematical under-standing (Rudd et al., in 2008). Teachers with more advanced competence in mathematics are able to use the informal settings of the kindergarten more often (Baroody/Coslick, in 1998; Seo/Ginsburg, in 2004). Germany belongs to the few countries where no master degree is required to become a kindergar-ten teacher (Oberhümer/Schreyer/Neumann, in 2010). The majority of the teachers are trained in secondary or post-secondary institutions, e.g. vocational schools. In those schools not much mathematics is taught. But even in bachelor studies, which are recently established at German universities and colleges mathematics is mentioned only in 30 of 56 curricula. The extent and main focus of kindergarten teacher training in Germany are heterogeneous. Our research project KomMa has the following four aims: 1) the development of a curricular valid model of teacher’s professional competences, which are necessary to enhance children’s mathematical abilities in the kindergarten; 2) the development of a test which measures the teachers’ competence to promote mathematical abilities in the informal settings the kindergarten provides; 3) the analysis of the teachers’ development of competence from the beginning of teacher training till the first years of teachers’ employment; 4) the identification of relevant framework conditions of the teacher training in international comparison between Germany and Norway.