Preschool children's collective mathematical reasoning during free outdoor play.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool children use mathematical properties in collective mathematical reasoning during free outdoor play. The study focuses on components such as data, conclusions, authority and support as well as the use of arguments.

The study indicates that the children's mathematical reasoning can take place in free outdoor play, i.e. without instructions from the preschool teachers or any organised outdoor activities. Moreover, the study shows that children use a variety of mathematical products and procedures to challenge, support or drive the reasoning forward. For instance, the children use tangible materials to illustrate and strengthen their arguments, and as an aid in order to reach conclusions. Furthermore, the children use abstract social constructs, such as jokes, as part of their reasoning. The authors conclude that children seem to show an ability to produce collective knowledge in their roles as a support teacher and a collective learner.

The study builds on video observations of children in outdoor free play with preschool teachers as participants. Data was collected during 17 visits to a preschool in Sweden over a period of two months. The observations included all groups of children with children aged 1-5 years, and resulted in just over 24 hours of video footage, of which 13 hours were transcribed. All utterances were subsequently categorised according to actions focusing on the interaction between the children. The material was analysed in order to identify sequences with mathematical content as well as interaction during free play. This resulted in five sequences comprising 11 episodes. Arguments and conclusions in the video sequences were analysed focusing on anchoring and mathematical properties. The third part of the study analysed the arguments to clarify the function of the arguments.

Sumpter, L. & Hedefalk, M. (2015). Preschool children's collective mathematical reasoning during free outdoor play. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior 39, 1-10.