Discipline: Mathematics,

Professional Resources

Copyright: 2016

Grade(s): PreK - 1

Delivery Method: Print

Imprint: Heinemann

Author(s): Thomas P. Carpenter, Megan Loef Franke, Nicholas C. Johnson, Anita Wager, Angela Chan Turrou

Young Children’s Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction in Early Childhood Education

"Young children are naturally curious and observant, and enter school ready to connect their rich informal understandings about the world around them to their experiences in classrooms.” 
—Thomas Carpenter, Megan Franke, Nicholas Johnson, Angela Chan Turrou, and Anita Wager

Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) has helped hundreds of thousands of teachers better understand how their students think mathematically. Young Children’s Mathematics, the newest addition to the CGI family of books, explores the development of mathematical understanding in the youngest learners. Young children’s everyday lives are full of mathematically-related conversation and play—and they enter school ready to make connections with these informal experiences. This book helps teachers recognize opportunities for making these connections by examining:

  • how children apply their emerging counting skills to problem solving situations
  • how teachers effectively engage with young learners to support their mathematical development
  • How noticing the details of what children can do helps us to build on their partial understandings
  • ways to bridge children’s mathematical worlds at home and school

Reinforced with classroom video clips, Young Children’s Mathematics provides an in-depth, research-based look at how children’s early learning develops and how teachers can authentically promote this kind of sense-making in mathematics.