Instructing First-Grade Children on Patterning Improves Reading and Mathematics

Abstract

Research Findings: In each of 16 public school classrooms serving multiethnic low-income neighborhoods, 2 first graders were assigned to be taught patterning, 2 to be taught reading, 2 to be taught mathematics, and 2 to be taught social studies for 15-min sessions 3 days per week for 6 months. Assignment within each classroom was randomized. The children's mean age was 6 years, 5.19 months. Patterning instruction included instruction on symmetrical patterns, patterns with increasing numbers of elements, and patterns involving the rotation of an object through 6 or 8 positions. In May, the 120 children still available were tested on patterns, reading, and mathematics. Patterning instruction had large, fully mediated effects on both reading and mathematics. There were no significant differences on some individual scales, but on others children who received patterning instruction scored best, often by grade equivalents of 4 to 8 months. Extant explanations of the efficacy of patterning instruction are reviewed, and the potential importance and limitations of its role in early education are discussed. Practice or Policy: Patterning instruction should be extended to more complex patterns than the alternations currently used in elementary schools in order to produce important improvements in both reading and mathematics.

Notes

Note. An average GE for a child at the eighth month of second grade is 2.8. GE = grade equivalent; TOWRE = Test of Word Reading Efficiency; GORT = Gray Oral Reading Test–4; TERA = Test of Early Reading Ability–3.

^a p < .001 for comparisons with Patterning.

^b p < .05 for comparisons with Patterning.

^c p < .05 for comparisons with Reading.

Note. The manual does not provide grade equivalencies for the W-J scales. For both combined, the GE is 2.3. W-J 18A and W-J 18B = Woodcock–Johnson III Math Concepts Scales A and B; GE = grade equivalent.

Superscripts denote p < .05 for a priori independent comparisons with ^a Patterning, ^b Mathematics, and ^c Reading.