https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1832-9480
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ABSTRACT
Pattern is fundamental to mathematical learning yet pattern has been conspicuously low key within early mathematics curriculum guidance in England despite evidence that it predicts later attainment in mathematics overall. Whilst recent curriculum changes have seen pattern afforded enhanced status, this is within a conception of pattern that marks a significant shift away from the evidence base. Through analysis of 25 years of early mathematics curriculum in England, this article identifies a curriculum landscape where pattern has been afforded little attention and narrowly framed. It finds that positioning pattern as a minor topic in mathematics potentially limits children’s access to “powerful knowledge”, in a critical realist sense, and to learning which is fundamental to deep, connected mathematical understanding. Recognition of pattern as powerful knowledge would position it as an essential, broad, central tenet of early childhood mathematics education and as an entitlement at the heart of national curricula.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The end of phase assessment against the early learning goals occurs at a fixed point in the school year so children will be either four- or five-years-old depending on their month of birth.
2 Hardy (Citation1940) argues that a mathematician is a maker of patterns of ideas in the same way that a painter makes patterns with paint and a poets makes patterns with words.
3 Digital Education Research Archive https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/ and Education in England http://www.educationengland.org.uk/index.html.
4 1994–1996 no statutory curriculum for birth to five-year-olds; 1996–2002 statutory curriculum for four- to five-year-olds; 2002–2008 statutory curriculum for three- to five-year-olds; and 2008–2019 statutory curriculum for birth to five-year-olds.