Math at home adds up to achievement in school

Math at home adds up to achievement in school

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Title 

Math at home adds up to achievement in school 

Authors 

Talia Berkowitz, Marjorie W. Schaeffer, Erin A. Maloney, Lori Peterson, Courtney Gregor, Susan Levine, Sian Beilock (2015) 

Journal and DOI 

Journal: Science, 350(6257), 196-198 

DOI: 10.1126/science.aac7427  

Previous Research 

Many parents believe that their role in supporting their child’s math learning is less important than their role in supporting their child’s reading. 

However, math exposure in the home is an important predictor of children’s mathematical success.  

Parents who have math anxiety (stress or apprehension about doing math) are more likely to avoid talking about math in the home – this can contribute to an intergenerational cycle of low math achievement.  

What did we ask? 

Will increasing the amount of math-related parent-child interactions at home lead to higher math achievement in school? 

How did we do it? 

Participants (parents and their first-grade children) collaboratively read and answered math-related story problems on an iPad app called Bedtime Learning Together.  

We analyzed the relation between the amount of app usage and the child’s math performance by the end of the school year.  

What did we find? 

When parents and children use the math app together, the child learns more math over the school year relative to children who do not use the math app. 

This finding was especially true for children whose parents are high in math anxiety.  

Take away Message 

Having children engage in brief, but high-quality, math-related interactions with their parents at home can contribute to higher math achievement in school. This may be especially effective for children whose parents are anxious about math. 

Brought to you by Dr. Erin Maloney’s Cognition and Emotion Lab at the University of Ottawa.