Pattern in early years mathematics curriculum: a 25-year review of the status, positioning and conception of pattern in England

Figures & data

Table 1. Inclusion criteria.

Criteria type	Inclusion criteria	Examples of exclusion
Topic	Addresses learning and teaching, supporting child development or education and care	Documents about health or social care
Document focus	Includes content on curriculum (what should be taught or learned) to support cognitive development	Documents exclusively about social or physical development
Subject content	Includes mathematics curriculum	Documents exclusively focussed on literacy curriculum
Audience	Includes leaders and teachers/practitioners in settings for children birth to five years	Documents intended exclusively for local authority personnel or school inspectors
Publication dates	Published between 01/01/1994 and 31/12/2019 in final format	Draft documents or consultations released before 31/12/2019 but not published for use until after this date
Authorship	Official publications by government and government departments	Documents written by think tanks, charities and researchers (unless commissioned and published by government)
Document type	Curriculum requirements, curriculum guidance, advice for the interpretation of curriculum requirements, advice for assessment of curriculum, advice for organisation of curriculum, reviews of curriculum, curriculum reports	Consultation documents, responses or reports
Application	Includes national guidance for England	National guidance exclusively for countries other than England Regional guidance School curriculum documents

Table 2. Review process.

Stage 1 – Identify documents using inclusion criteria (Table 1)
Stage 2 – Analyse documents, by date of publication. For each document: Read all mathematics content for birth to five years age range (including cross-curricular) Record all extracts relating to pattern which includes words or description indicating advice for pattern learning (both as specific patterns and attention to structure). Indicative list of terms to support this progress: o pattern, patterns, patterning o subitising o sequences o algebra or algebraic thinking o rules, relationships, connections, structures o arrange, arrangement, organise o copy, continue, create, spot, identify o spatial, growing, repeating, repeated, alternating o symmetry, symmetrical, odd/even A principle of inclusion was applied, i.e. where content is vague but could potentially relate to pattern it was included for further analysis. Where guidance included content relating to the teaching of older children, only content relating to four- to five-year-olds was included. Record the density (proportionally how much of the mathematics content relates to pattern) – description and estimated percentage Record near misses (extracts or sections which were considered but excluded) and non-mathematical references to pattern, for double checking
Stage 3 – Double check all near misses from 3 and move to include these, if needed
Stage 4 – Code documents for indicators of status, position and conception. For each document: Code the status – statutory or non-statutory Code the domains (if indicated) as specified in the document (e.g. algebra, number, calculation, shape, measures) – free coding, codes refined, codes applied Code the treatment of pattern – quality, topic or both/unclear Code pattern types – spatial, repeating, growing or none/unclear Record advice on pattern pedagogy (if this was included) – text extracts
Stage 5a – Create filtered groups of documents (based on research questions). Analyse the extracts for all documents with the group code to create summaries of the range and type of content in these code groups. Code groups: Statutory (question 1) non-statutory (question 1) Quality/both (question 4a, question 4c) Topic (question 4a) Pattern pedagogy (question 4b)
Stage 5b – create filtered groups of documents (based on research questions). Analyse extracts for all documents with group code and for the balance across the code groups within that area. Areas and code groups: Domains – number, shape, space, problem solving – (question 2, question 4c) Pattern types – spatial structural, repeating, growing – (question 3)