Japanese kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about young children’s base-10 understanding

Abstract

Japanese children attain high mathematics performance in international tests, such as PISA and TIMISS. Their superior mathematics achievement begins as early as kindergarten. Recent study demonstrated that Japanese kindergarteners were able to solve complex addition problems comprising of two-digits addends (e.g. 23+14) using Base-10 Decomposition (Ong et al. 2022). The result suggested that Japanese kindergarteners already have a clear understanding of base-10, which is relatively complex to learn for young children. As Japanese kindergarteners rarely attend non-pre- school education institutions (e.g. Kumon and Benesse) for learning mathematics (Cave 2022), Japanese kindergartens may serve as an important learning platform for supporting children's base-10 understanding. MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), however, does not recommend kindergartens teach mathematics intentionally or directly to children. Interestingly, Japanese kindergarten teachers frequently embed not only basic mathematical concepts (Cave 2022; Sakakibara 2014), but also complex concepts like base-10 (Ong and Kawata 2023), into different activities that promote young children’s mathematical skills. Despite this, it remains unclear of their beliefs about young children’s mathematical development, especially base-10 understanding. The investigation of this understudied area is crucial since these beliefs influence classroom practices (Hegde et al. 2014), which in turn have a significant impact on the way young children learn and understand base-10.

The study aimed to identify and examine Japanese kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about young children’s base-10 understanding, by analysing how do they interpret young children’s base-10 understanding from their viewpoint as kindergarten teachers?

15 teachers from two private Japanese kindergartens participated in the study. The two kindergartens were carefully chosen to ensure that they represented most of the kindergartens within the Japanese cultural context. The teachers were assigned to five different groups for focus group interviews. Note- taking, photography, and video were used to document the teachers’ responses to the questions.

This study identified and examined Japanese kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about young children’s base-10 understanding. Three themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews:

Theme 1: Base-10 is a crucial aspect of early mathematics Teachers emphasized the importance of base-10 in early mathematics as it promotes young children’s mathematical learning and development.

Theme 2: Base-10 is an everyday life ‘item’ Teachers discussed how base-10 exists in young children’s everyday life. Hence, they believed that children get to experience and use base-10 every day at school, as well as at home.

Theme 3: Developing base-10 understanding through music and/or body movement activities Teachers shared different music and/or body movement activities that comprise of base-10 and suggested that these activities are more effective in facilitating Japanese young children’s base-10 understanding.

Overall, this study informs the literature on teachers’ belief about young children’s base-10 understanding. Since Japanese kindergarten curriculum does not specify how young children should learn base-10, understanding teachers' beliefs provides insight into how they support children to develop this concept through their classroom practices.