ABSTRACT
Phase 1 of the project investigated the mathematical knowledge, strategies and representations that a small group of young children brought into school and after a slight refinement of tasks, provided the detailed assessment of informal mathematical knowledge of a larger group of reception-aged children. These findings were reported in Chapter 5. Since the overall aim of the project was to investigate teachers' pedagogical subject knowledge, Phase 2 sought to investigate teachers' reported planning of the reception curriculum, their pedagogical decision-making and, in particular, the extent to which, if at all, teachers were aware of, and took account of, their children's existing knowledge through topics taught and the active encouragement of children's own construction of knowledge. Accordingly, this chapter will describe teachers' reported classroom practice. This will then be considered in the light of subsequent lesson observations over children's first year in school first, for a group of four reception teachers and second, for a group of seven reception teachers who took part in a subsequent phase.
