Examining and Promoting Math Engagement for Families with Young Children

Boston College, Chestnut Hill MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Family engagement in early math can include daily activities and interactions that relate to numbers which are important for young children’s learning and development. However, there is significant variation in the amount and types of this kind of family engagement. Understanding how to promote engagement in early math is critical, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The goals of this project are to: (a) examine how families engage in math and (b) work with families to design and implement an intervention to promote family engagement in math. The findings from the project have the potential to contribute to the fields of STEM education, early childhood education, and developmental psychology. The project is also designed to build family interest and engagement in early math, which can support children from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds in pursuing STEM studies and careers. Although there is increasing evidence that family engagement in early math starts children on a positive math learning trajectory, more work is needed to understand how to promote engagement in early math, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This project takes a strengths-based approach to examining family math engagement, with three primary objectives. First is to examine how families currently engage with math in their daily routines and what factors contribute to engagement. Second is to design and implement a family engagement intervention, building upon families’ experiences and opportunities to engage in math in their daily routines. Third is to examine the role of the intervention in terms of parental beliefs about math, family math engagement, and child math interest and performance. Resulting analyses have the potential to deepen understanding of math development and for developing evidence-based tools and guidance to support children’s learning and interests in math. The study design will use multiple methods, including focus group interviews, naturalistic observations of family math engagement, and the co-design of an experimental intervention with families recruited from Head Start preschool classrooms. Overall, the project aims to extend prior research on family math engagement including naturalistically-informed and rich family-reported perspectives. The project has potential for direct applications for families and educators that may further ongoing efforts to support children from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds thereby better positioning them to pursue future STEM studies and careers. The project responds to the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field. The project is also partially supported by the NSF’s EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.