Let’s Count in early childhood teacher education

Description

In 2011, The Smith Family's 'Let’s Count' early numeracy professional learning program was developed by the first author into an elective distance education subject offered at Charles Sturt University. The resulting subject, EMC101: Let’s Count, has been offered every year since 2012, and by 2021 had been completed by 796 students. EMC101 consistently achieves SES scores which are both very high (>4 on a 5-point scale) and higher than the School mean. In addition to the SES data, the subject has been evaluated through a small-scale research evaluation. Past EMC101 students were invited to participate in an email interview about their experiences in the subject. Eighteen educators participated in the evaluation and all reported positive experiences in the subject. It can be seen from the research evaluation that students find the subject valuable for developing their confidence in mathematics, their ability to identify mathematics in children’s everyday lives, and their skills in communicating with families around their children’s mathematics learning. It appears that the translation of the Let’s Count program to a university subject has been a successful endeavour.

Period	2021
Held at	Education
Degree of Recognition	International