Supporting teachers in the development of young children's mathematical thinking: Three large scale cases

Recognition of the importance of the early childhood years in the development of numeracy is a significant characteristic of the New Zealand Numeracy Development Project, the Victorian Early Numeracy Research Project and the Count Me In Too program in New South Wales, Australia. This article outlines the background, key components and major impacts of these three innovative and successful professional development and research initiatives. Juxtaposing the three projects highlights important commonalities—research-based frameworks, diagnostic interviews, and whole-school approaches to professional development. Each program has been significant in rethinking what mathematics and how mathematics is taught to young children. Increasingly researchers have demonstrated that children begin to think mathematically from an early age. There is considerable research to show that many children arrive at primary school already equipped with an extraordinary understanding of the number system and how it works (Aubrey, 1999; Wright, 1994; Young-Loveridge, 2004). However, even as earl