FAQ

The resources found on this website are free and designed to be used flexibly across a range of settings and audiences. The log-in process is no longer required to access the materials, with the exception of select pages with downloadable publications (you’ll be prompted for a log-in when required). Otherwise, the log-in is optional - it is free to create an account and doing so enables you to add resources to your Favorites section for later retrieval.

The resources found on this website are primarily designed for two groups of teacher educators(TEs): preservice and inservice. Preservice TEs are instructors and others responsible for teaching higher education courses designed to prepare early childhood education students (mostly prospective or practicing teachers) to support young children’s mathematics learning. They often use these materials in the higher education classroom, from community college through graduate school, as well as in special institutes and in presentations. The primary audience for preservice TEs is degree students in higher education at the undergraduate or graduate levels, and practicing teachers who require continuing education course credits or other higher education experiences. Inservice TEs provide professional development in early mathematics learning. This group includes coaches, curriculum specialists, and others who can use the materials in teacher workshops, lesson-study sessions, and similar settings. The audience for inservice TEs is practicing early childhood teachers and childcare personnel.

Some of the materials, particularly in the Overview module, are also suitable for use by administrators and those who make or influence policy concerning such matters as teacher certification or curriculum goals. All of these individuals may benefit from guidance on the value and nature of early childhood math education, and on the professional development that can foster it in both the inservice and preservice settings.

The resources are designed for TE use in three settings: live, online, and hybrid. Some materials are appropriate primarily for live settings at both the inservice and preservice levels. For example, the Going Deeper with Collections resource includes a live group activity “Role Playing to Support Counting Principles” in which participants interact as they take the roles of teacher, student, and observer. Although a variation of this activity might be done as a discussion online, it is most powerful in the live setting. Some materials are designed for online use. For example, participants can access a website to view and analyze selected videos. The students work alone, viewing the videos, commenting on them, and answering questions, all on the website. The TE can then critique the material and respond through the website. The hybrid approach offers several advantages. For example, the TE engages workshop or class participants in a live discussion of a teaching video. The TE encourages critical analysis and responds in the moment to students’ interpretations and comments. After the live activity, students complete similar analyses of new videos on the website. Also, the website serves as a library for video clips and other materials such as journal articles and lecture notes.

This website is a project of Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education (DREME), with generous support from the Heising-Simons Foundation. We highly encourage the use of DREME resources for individual, non-commercial, educational purposes. Whenever you use one of our resources, we ask that you include the following citation:

Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education (DREME). [Author(s), if listed]. Retrieved on [Date] from [Resource web link]

Please complete this Permissions Request Form if you plan to:

• Include DREME resources in a commercial publication,
• Translate DREME resources to another language, or
• Use the resources in any manner in which a license is needed (e.g., for something other than individual, non-commercial, educational purposes).

This website is organized into modules each of which offers a variety of materials designed to help users understand a specific mathematical topic, such as counting, spatial relations, etc. We designed the modules for flexible use. For example, one TE may use most of the materials over the course of several weeks in a class on early math education, while another uses only one document in a general course on early childhood education or in a presentation for parents. An inservice TE may use some of the materials in a general overview session on early math education or a bi-weekly professional development workshop. We have provided some ideas in the Getting Started section of each content module. Our hope is that as TEs become familiar with the activities within a module, they will use more and more of them. 

Each content module (Counting, Spatial Relations, Operations, Patterns & Algebra, and Measurement & Data) is organized into several sections:

• The Why and What section describes the nature and importance of the mathematical topic.
• The Mathematics section explains the underlying mathematical ideas.
• The Development of Children’s section elucidates the development of children’s mathematical thinking.
• The Assessment section presents methods for the formative assessment of a child's learning.
• The Supporting Classroom Practice section provides activities that TEs can use when training prospective and practicing teachers, to help them understand issues of mathematics learning and teaching.
• The Vignettes are examples from actual experiences of teachers both learning to teach and teaching early math.
• The Getting Started section offer examples of ways the materials might be used in different settings and across different time spans.  

The Overview module, which provides important information about early math and overview resources that span across content areas, is organized into two sections:

• The Background and Rationale resources provide foundational information about the teaching and learning of early math.
• The Using Our Resources section offers overview resources that complement specific resources in the content modules.

Handout
This is content that TEs may wish to “hand out” to participants (both preservice and inservice) to have available locally. We encourage you to use the Print Resource feature, which allows you to print a hard copy or save a PDF to your computer.

Article
These pages include supplemental publications that complement the material provided in the module. These can be downloaded in PDF format. Accessing many of these specific pages requires you to log in (the log-in process is free).

Video
These pages include video resources, such as a young child engaged in mathematics or an interaction between a child and a teacher in a classroom setting. (Click the "CC" icon in the bottom right corner of a video to turn on Closed Captioning.)

Activity
These “Activities for Teacher Educators” are specifically designed for TEs to use with participants and provide details about how TEs might engage participants. Many of these link directly to other resources in the module, such as a handout, article, or video.

Clicking on List all resources brings you to a page that provides access to every resource on this website. By default, the page will display all resources, organized by newest resource modified. Use the filters on the left side of the page to select specific module content and type of resource (for example, videos only, in Operations module). Additionally, there is a search bar in the upper right corner that allows you to do a text search.

Click on Save to Favorites (found at the top of every resource) to save any page for later retrieval. These marked items will be stored in your My Account page under the Favorites section. You must be logged in to use this feature (the log-in process is free).