Implementing a Pattern and Structure Mathematics

This paper provides an interim report of a large empirical evaluation study in progress. An intervention was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of the Pattern and Structure Mathematical Awareness Program (PASMAP) on Kindergarten students ’ mathematical development. Four large schools (two from Sydney and two from Brisbane), 16 teachers and their 316 students participated in the first phase of a 2-year longitudinal study. Eight of 16 classes implemented the PASMAP program over three school terms. This paper provides an overview of key aspects of the intervention, and preliminary analysis of the impact of PASMAP on students ’ representation, abstraction and generalisation of mathematical ideas. Virtually all mathematics is based on pattern and structure. By mathematical pattern, we mean any predictable regularity involving number, space or measure. Examples are friezes, number sequences, units of measure and geometrical figures. By structure, we mean the way in which the various elements are organised and related. Thus, a frieze might be constructed by iterating a single “unit of repeat”; the structure of a number sequence may be expressed in an algebraic formula; and the structure of a geometrical figure i