Patterning strategies in early childhood: a mixed methods study examining 3- to 5-year-old children’s patterning competencies

ABSTRACT

Despite increasing data on young children’s patterning skills and evidence of a link between early pattern knowledge and later mathematics performance, little is known about the strategies children use to solve patterning tasks. This mixed-methods study examined 3- to 5-year-old children’s informal strategies when solving eight patterning tasks with three different repeating patterns. In a sequential qualitative-quantitative design, patterning strategies were first longitudinally observed and categorized into five hierarchically ordered categories (n = 6), and then cross-sectionally tested and quantified (n = 174). Results show that young children use various different patterning strategies, and that both patterning strategies and skills organically develop between the age of three and five. However, despite high correct solution rates, the 5-year olds’ strategies still reflect little attention to the patterns’ structure, suggesting that a pattern and structure based instruction is needed to help young children abstract the unit of repeat.

KEYWORDS:

• Patterning strategies
• repeating patterns
• early childhood mathematics

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all participating kindergartens and children, as well as Jana Bußmann, Alicia Neumann, Lara-Jeanne Pilgrim, Sandra Rott, and Sarah Salmon for their assistance in data collection and coding.

Notes

1. German kindergarten comprises the 3 years before school entry, i.e., children start kindergarten when they are 3-years old.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Miriam M. Lüken

Miriam M. Lüken is a professor in mathematics education at the IDM in Bielefeld, Germany, since January 2013. Her research focuses on mathematical learning in early childhood, especially the development of early pattern and structure competencies. Miriam finished her PhD which was supervised by Prof. Dr. Klaus Hasemann in 2011 at Leibniz University Hannover. From 2004 to 2012, Miriam worked as a teacher in a Primary School in Hannover.

Odile Sauzet

Odile Sauzet has gained a PhD in Pure mathematics from the University of Bordeaux and later a master in applied statistics from the University of Southampton. She is the head of Statistical Consulting at Bielefeld University and over the years has collaborated with many projects across different disciplines.