Pre-school teachers’ learning support and its effects on children’s numerical competence

Adaptive learning support is a quality feature of effective pre-school education. However, so far research on the effects of learning support provided by preschool teachers on children’s mathematical learning is scarce. The present study examines the effects of the quality of pre-school teachers’ learning support on children’s mathematical development. In the study, 65 kindergarten classes with a total of 517 children from a German-speaking country participated. Children’s mathematical achievement was assessed twice within six months. Video data of mathematical board-game sessions and data from interviews with the teachers were used to analyse the quality of two learning-support measures: micro-adaptive support (learning support during the game session) and macroadaptive support (planning of the game session). Results of cross-sectional data revealed an impact of the quality of domain-specific learning support (microadaptive) on children’s mathematical achievement, but there was no evidence of an impact of the quality of social-emotional support (micro-adaptive) and of macro-adaptive learning support. Contrary to expectations, no influence of micro- and macro-adaptive learning support was found with regard to the children’s longitudinal mathematical learning gains. Our findings indicate that domain-specific learning support (micro-adaptive) might affect children’s mathematical learning positively. It is possible that the effects of learning support in everyday kindergarten life take longer to unfold than during the six months observed.