Making shared book reading count. The contribution of teacher and picture book characteristics

Early mathematical skills are important for children’s later mathematical development (Duncan et al., 2007). High-quality learning opportunities in preschool help to stimulate the acquisition of these key competencies. Shared book reading (SBR) was recently identified as a learning-supportive activity in the domain of early mathematics (e.g., Purpura et al., 2017). However, contrasting the domain of language and literacy, current insights into the interaction quality of SBR in the domain of mathematics, and its association with characteristics of the teacher and the picture book are limited. We aimed to address this gap by systematically analyzing the teacher-child interaction during SBR in the domain of mathematics and its association with teacher and picture book characteristics, by conducting four studies.                                                                                                                                                  

In the first study, we systematically reviewed studies on SBR in the domain of early mathematics. More specifically, we focused on the characteristics of picture book, and the frequency, quality and effectiveness of SBR in the domain of early mathematics. Although a significant number of studies showed that SBR was effective for the development of children’s mathematical skills, research on picture book characteristics and the frequency and quality of SBR in this domain was limited. Studies concerning the quality mostly looked at the amount of adults’ or children’s mathematical talk, and rarely investigated specific types or the complexity of this talk. Finally, SBR frequency, quality, and effectiveness was hardly studied in association with picture book, adult, child, and context characteristics making it difficult to draw conclusions about their complex interplay. We next designed three empirical studies to address the gaps identified in the first study, especially the gaps related to SBR quality.                                                                                                                                   

In the second and third study, we examined preschool teachers’ decision-making skills with regard to their mathematical questioning behavior during SBR, in association with teacher and picture book characteristics. Results revealed that preschool teachers’ chance to spontaneously formulate a mathematical question was relatively low, and that preschool teachers mostly formulated mathematical questions at the literal level. With regard to the contribution of teacher and picture book characteristics, the results of these studies were mixed. In Study 2, only the type of picture book (mathematical picture books) was a positive predictor, while in Study 3 preschool teachers’ mathematical content knowledge, mathematical pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK), the type of picture book, and the interaction between MPCK and the type of picture book all positively predicted their decision-making skills regarding their mathematical questioning behavior.                                                                         

In the fourth study, we investigated the quality of the teacher-child interaction during SBR by analyzing the interaction behavior of preschool teachers and the children of their class in authentic classroom situations, in association with preschool teachers’ MPCK and the type of picture book. The findings provided a detailed overview of preschool teachers’ and children’s interaction behavior in terms of conversational action, mathematical focus, level of abstraction, and sequential relation between teachers’ and children’s talk. In addition, results showed that only the type of picture book, and not preschool teachers’ MPCK, was associated with the quality of teacher-child interaction.                             

Together, the results of our studies provide new insights into SBR and especially the quality of teacher-child interaction in the domain of mathematics. We end this dissertation with a discussion of our major findings and their scientific relevance. We also formulate suggestions for future studies and implications for educational practice.