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  “Very young children have the potential to learn mathematics that is complex and sophisticated. Unfortunately, this potential is left unrealized for many children throughout the world.”

  Douglas H. Clements and Julie Sarama

  SUNY Distinguished Professor and Professor of Learning and Instruction, Graduate School of Education

By Charles Anzalone

Published: August 25, 2011

The research of UB faculty members Douglas H. Clements and Julie Sarama is featured in a special section of Science magazine focused on the value of educational programs for the earliest of childhood learners—children 2, 3 and 4 years old.

Effective early childhood education, the magazine states, can have a significant impact on many aspects of adult life, such as “your comfort with math or even the size of your paycheck.”

Identifying which education programs are the most effective is crucial to the nation’s education policy and can help guide parents. (Read their article here.)

Clements’ and Sarama’s “Building Blocks” pre-kindergarten mathematics program, funded by the National Science Foundation, is one program shown to be effective.

Indeed, the quantitative, spatial and logical reasoning competencies of mathematics form a cognitive foundation for thinking and learning across subjects, according to Clements’ and Sarama’s article. Given the importance of mathematics to academic success and to a nation’s economic success, all children need a robust knowledge of mathematics in their earliest years, the UB researchers say.

The good news is that all children can develop such mathematical knowledge and skill. Sarama and Clements have created educational interventions that have been shown to be effective in helping all children learn mathematics. These are structured around “learning trajectories”—research-based paths of learning based on a synthesis of research in cognitive and developmental psychology and mathematics education.

Building Blocks’ basic approach is finding the mathematics in, and developing mathematics from, children’s activity. The program’s curriculum was designed to help children extend and “mathematize” their everyday activities, from building blocks to art and stories to puzzles and games.