Kindergarten Teachers' Attitudes Towards Mathematics, Beliefs In Mathematics Education And The Current Status Of Their Practice

At present,more and more people realize that the influence of early mathematics education on children's physical and mental development cannot be ignored.The cognition of teachers' beliefs in mathematics education and mathematics attitudes as the influencing factors of early mathematics education,are of great importance.But at present,there are a series of problems in early mathematics education,such as teachers' negative beliefs and attitudes in mathematics education,and the present situation of early mathematics education activities in kindergartens is not optimistic.Therefore,this study will mainly explore the current situation of Shanghai kindergarten teachers' beliefs in mathematics education and mathematics attitudes and the relationship between them,as well as the practical status and influencing factors of kindergarten teachers' early mathematics education activities.This study is divided into two parts.Study one is to investigate 370 Shanghai kindergarten teachers' beliefs in mathematics education and mathematics attitudes by using The Mathematical Development Beliefs Survey(MDBS)and Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory(ATMI).Study two combines questionnaire survey and interview,using the questionnaire of kindergarten teachers' early mathematics education practice and the interview outline of kindergarten teachers' early mathematics education practice,explores the current situation of 30 Shanghai public kindergarten teachers' early mathematics education practice.The results are as follows:1.Kindergarten teachers generally hold more positive beliefs in mathematics education and optimistic mathematics attitudes.2.In terms of teachers' beliefs in mathematics education,teachers' confidence in carrying out early mathematics education promotes with the increase of teachers' teaching age.Teachers' understanding of the suitability and importance of children's mathematics learning has become more and more obvious with the improvement of teachers' educational background,but their confidence in early mathematics instruction is reduced accordingly.Compared with teachers in private kindergartens,teachers in public kindergartens are more aware of the age suitability and importance of children's mathematics learning,but they lack confidence in their own educational role and early mathematics instruction.3.In terms of teachers' mathematics attitudes,teachers' understanding of the importance of mathematics promotes with the increase of their educational background.Compared with teachers in private kindergartens,teachers in public kindergartens are generally aware of the importance of mathematics,but lack of interest in mathematics.4.Except that the dimension of teachers' role is not related to the dimension of teachers' confidence in learning mathematics,there is a significant positive correlation between teachers' beliefs in mathematics education and their mathematics attitudes.After controlling teachers' teaching age,educational background and kindergarten nature,the dimensions of teachers' mathematics attitudes can significantly predict teachers' beliefs in mathematics education.5.Public kindergarten teachers attach great importance to early mathematics education.Teachers are generally aware of the importance of early mathematics education.Teachers in small classes think that the importance of mathematics education lies in fostering children's interest in learning,while teachers in middle and large classes think that the importance lies in the cultivation of children's logical thinking ability.At the same time,teachers in small classes pay more attention to content of matching and corresponding,teachers in middle classes pay more attention to counting,number sequence and other preliminary digital-related content,teachers in large classes pay more attention to content of measurement.6.When carrying out early mathematics education activities,teachers have different emphasis on practice according to the different stages they take.In terms of children's development goals,small classes teachers aim to cultivate initial interest in learning,middle classes teachers aim to cultivate practical problem-solving ability,large classes teachers aim to cultivate children master specific mathematical knowledge.In terms of the frequency of teaching activities,small classes teachers carry out more content of matching and corresponding,middle classes teachers carry out more content related to basic number concept and counting,large classes teachers carry out more content related to set comparison.In terms of teaching content,small classes teachers choose more sets and modes,simple figure recognition and counting,and teachers in middle and large classes choose more number concepts and operations,measurement and space.In the form of teaching activities,teachers in small and large classes choose more collective teaching activities,while teachers in large classes choose more individual learning activities.In terms of teaching strategies,small classes teachers are more likely to use game-based situational teaching,while middle and large classes teachers are more likely to choose to provide operational materials.7.The factors affecting teachers' early mathematics education activities are mainly divided into social environment factors,children factors and teachers factors.The relevant regulations and policies issued by the education department,the overall development level of classes children and teachers' teaching abilities play a more significant influence.In view of the above conclusions,this study carried out relevant discussions and put forward corresponding educational suggestions,mainly including: helping teachers to form optimistic mathematical attitude and positive beliefs in mathematics education;standardizing the teaching system of early mathematics education;emphasizing the cultivation of children's problem-solving ability through early mathematics education activities;reasonably choosing instruction content;reasonable selection of instruction content should not only grasp the overall level of children's development,but also respect individual differences;controlling class size,facilitating small class teaching;making full use of parents and community resources,cooperation between kindergarten internal and external.