Joan Moss delivers keynote at Early Years Professional Learning Day

September 12, 2017

On Friday, September 8, about 400 teachers and early years educators met in Windsor, Ontario to think about mathematics teaching and learning in early years classroom. The event was organized by the Greater Essex County District School Board and The Mathematics Knowledge Network.

There were two keynote sessions: one by Jo-Anne Lefebvre director of Carleton University’s Institute of Cognitive Science; the other by our very own Joan Moss, Professor Emerita in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development here at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto.

Joan’s keynote was called, A Playful Pedagogy Approach to Early Years Mathematics: Supporting Young Learners to Enjoy (And Succeed In) Mathematics. She talked about the Math for Young Children Research project (M4YC), which has worked with teachers and their students in more than 100 classrooms in urban, rural and First Nations schools. Through collaboration, educators design and test innovative and engaging lessons in geometry, measurement and number — all with a playful pedagogy approach. Joan talked about how the program has an emphasis on spatial reasoning — an important factor in success in all the STEM disciplines. She also highlighted the exciting outcomes from M4YC: children not only improved significantly in their overall mathematics performance, but they also made substantial gains in spatial reasoning abilities.

Early Years PD Day Flyer 2017

Related Lessons

Joan mentioned a number of lessons during her talk. The Robertson Program has a many of them featured on our website.

Symmetry Game

Allow children to be creative and practice the basics of symmetry through play with classmates.
A bunch of students in a classroom with two instructors, and a title that reads, "Symmetry Game".

Can You Draw This?

Students are briefly shown a series of designs inside a square and must recreate them from memory.
A child drawing with a title that reads, "Can You Draw This?".

Garden Patio

Children explore measurement and geometry and spatial sense through a narrative about a garden patio.
A baking pan with purple coloured squares on it. A title also reads, "Garden Patio".

Cube Challenge

In this lesson, students work together to build 21 unique structures out of 3, 4, and 5 unifix cubes. Can you build them all?
A bunch of cubes making shapes on a table with a title that reads, "The Cube Challenge".
Tags:
Lessons, Conference, Professional Development
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