CAREER: Sparking "Number Talks" to Strengthen Mathematical Identities

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There has been an increasing research focus on changing mathematics education by focusing on mathematical identity development. In order to do this, we must first seek to understand young children’s funds of knowledge (FoK) and leverage it to design instruction. To this end, this poster describes how one early childhood teacher intentionally designed number talk instructional activities by foregrounding young children’s FoK through photos taken by families and herself to capture mathematics in their lives. The findings suggest that the photos provided insight into young children's FoK while providing a real-life context to design number talks that spark young children’s engagement in whole group discussions about mathematics, while growing their mathematical Identities.

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