Supporting One-Year-Olds’ Digital Locating: The Mediating Role of the Apps and the Teacher

Abstract

AbstractAlthough there is some research on how very young children engage in mathematical activities, little is known about how teachers facilitate this engagement through digital tools. In this paper, the relationship between digital apps, kindergarten teachers’ facilitation and 18-month-old children’s mathematical engagement is explored. Artefact-centric activity theory was used to analyse video recordings of children and a kindergarten teacher engaging with three digital apps. The results show how children engaged with the mathematical activity of locating and that the teacher facilitated their engagement by following the children’s interests and adding verbal and body language to what the children did on the tablet they were using. The apps’ design supported the opportunities that the teachers had to facilitate children’s engagement with aspects of locating, to different degrees. The results provide information about the kinds of apps that could support the youngest children’s mathematical engagement, and how kindergarten teachers can facilitate young children’s digital explorations of locating.