STEM Learning and Learning Environments  

Broadening Participation in STEM

Investigating Effective Methods that Adults Use to Improve Children's Math Achievement in Informal Learning Environments: A Meta Analysis

Effective Years: 2020-2023

This project is designed to explore how adults, including parents and childcare providers, can help children better learn mathematics in informal settings. To do so, this research study will conduct a meta-analysis of mathematics teaching strategies used in informal learning environments, such as museums, libraries, and the home. A meta-analysis examines published research data, paying close attention to differences in findings, and uses statistics to analyze the findings across different studies. This meta-analysis will summarize the relevant research about mathematics teaching that has been published since 1980, focusing on children in preschool to the end of third grade. It will also focus on mathematics learning topics of numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis. The researchers will include data from peer-reviewed research, conference proposals, reports, and dissertations. In choosing which research studies should be included in their analysis, the researchers will consider the specific teaching strategies used, the participants in the study, and the training that the adults received. The project intends use their analysis to show what effective mathematics teaching looks like in informal learning environments. This information can provide insights about best mathematics teaching practices for young children in informal learning environments. In this way, it can benefit mathematics education by informing the decision-making of researchers, practitioners, parents, childcare providers, teacher educators. After a thorough review of the literature and collection of relevant studies, the researchers will code each contributing study for methodological, participant, and intervention characteristics, study quality, and type of dependent measure. The researchers will also double code studies to establish inter-rater agreement to ensure consistency in coding procedures across reviewers. A random-effects meta-regression will then be used to synthesize standardized mean difference effect sizes to determine an overall average effect and evaluate coded moderators that may account for variability in the observed effects. Cluster robust variance estimation will be used to account for dependence between effect sizes collected from the same study. This project has the potential to make a unique contribution to the field by (a) responding to a recent upward trend of empirical research on mathematics interventions in informal learning environments; (b) reporting on the current quality of evidence of intervention studies as a means to improve future research studies in this area; (c) broadening stakeholders’ knowledge base regarding training parents and childcare providers to implement effective mathematics interventions; and (d) implementing a rigorous research plan and meta-analytic techniques. This project is jointly funded by the Education and Human Resource Core Research (ECR) Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). 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.

4 Publications Related to This Project: