Prentice Starkey Receives Major Grant for International Study of Children's Early Math Learning

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education faculty member Prentice Starkey and Institute of Human Development researcher Alice Klein have teamed up on one of the first of a new and unique series of grants designed to improve teaching and learning from preschool through twelfth grade. The grant of $1,586,709 was awarded to Starkey and Klein by the recently initiated Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI), a joint effort of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Starkey and Klein's grant is part of a five-year endeavor developed in response to a report by President Clinton's advisory panel of technology, business and education leaders. The report urged that a significant federal research investment be undertaken in education. "The first round of IERI awards is an important step toward improving the quality and utility of educational research for the betterment of our schools," said Arthur Bienenstock, associate director for science in the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The ambitious study Starkey and Klein are undertaking will span two continents and thirty-six months. They will compare the early development of mathematical concepts and understanding in 3- to 6-year-old Chinese, Japanese, and American children. "We'll be investigating how these cultures support children's early mathematical development in multiple learning environments--home, child care, preschool, and kindergarten" Starkey said.

Starkey and Klein will include in their study approximately 200 children from each country, with half of the children coming from low socioeconomic status families and the other half from middle income families. The cultural studies will include children's home and classroom environments, the customs of child rearing and care, and the knowledge and belief systems of parents, teachers, and other caregivers. The project is a collaboration that brings in partners from all over the Pacific Rim, including Mark Wilson, professor at Berkeley's Graduate School of Education, as well as faculty at the University of Hawaii, Beijing Normal University, and Japan's Keio University.

"We know that informal mathematical knowledge begins to develop very early in life," Starkey said. "This knowledge then serves as a foundation for the acquisition of formal mathematics in elementary school. But research conducted in the 1990s has revealed that children enter elementary school with surprisingly large differences in the extent of their mathematical knowledge. This knowledge tends to be less extensive in children from low-income families than in children from middle-income families and it tends to be less extensive in American children in general than in Chinese and Japanese children."

Starkey anticipates that the findings of this research will point to ways that parents and teachers can better prepare children for school math. "For the United States," he explained, "these results will have implications for standards-based education reform efforts in mathematics. We hope this research will show us when and how we can most effectively support the development of young children's mathematical knowledge and abilities, so when they enter elementary school they'll be ready for a standards-based math curriculum."

Prentice Starkey