Chapter 16 - Children’s Accuracy and Strategy Use in the Context of Addition

Summary

This chapter builds on the original findings of the Classroom Memory Study and outlines the ways in which children’s academic skills are also influenced by the types of language that (1) parents use during the course of conversations about the past, and (2) teachers use during classroom instruction. We present findings from a number of studies to illustrate that kindergarten students’ accuracy and strategy use in the context of mathematics is influenced by exposure to metacognitive language at home and at school. In addition, we explore the impact of kindergarten teachers’ metacognitive language on children’s mathematics accuracy and strategy use across the first two years of formal school for those children who enter school with relatively low mathematical knowledge. Finally, we emphasize that a commitment to examining instructional approaches and methods of assessment that focus on students’ metacognitive understanding will be critical to the evolution of the Classroom Memory Study and to studying the socialization of children’s cognition more broadly.