Kindergarten Children Demonstrating Numeracy Concepts through Drawings and Explanations - Intentional Teaching within Play-based Learning

Oct 15, 2026

Using both child-guided and adult-guided learning, intentional teaching in early years supports young children’s numeracy development. The study examines how kindergarten children (ages four to five) represented numeracy concepts through drawings and explanations. It uses arts-based strategies and involves Australian children creating and exchanging postcards of local environments with peers in Canada. Results show growing understanding in spatial orientation, quantification, and object attributes, supporting intentional teaching and an early childhood numeracy progress monitoring framework.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Structured learning vs free play

Intentional Teaching in Early Childhood

Definition and supporting frameworks

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 41 | Issue 5 | Article 5 | | --- | --- | 2016 Kindergarten Children Demonstrating Numeracy Concepts through Drawings and Explanations: Intentional Teaching within Play-based Learning Philemon Chigeza James Cook University, [philemon.chigeza@jcu.edu.au](philemon.chigeza@jcu.edu.au) Reesa Sorin James Cook University Recommended Citation Chigeza, P., & Sorin, R. (2016). Kindergarten Children Demonstrating Numeracy Concepts through Drawings and Explanations: Intentional Teaching within Play-based Learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41 (5). Retrieved from [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol41/iss5/5](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol41/iss5/5) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol41/iss5/5](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol41/iss5/5) Kindergarten Children Demonstrating Numeracy Concepts through Drawings and Explanations: Intentional Teaching within Play-based Learning Philemon Chigeza Reesa Sorin James Cook University Abstract: Using both child-guided and adult-guided learning, Intentional Teaching in the early years can be a powerful tool for enhancing young children’s numeracy skills. As Epstein (2009) notes, this can include providing “opportunities for children to represent things by drawing, building and moving”(p. 47). This paper investigates how kindergarten (four-five year olds) children represented and demonstrated numeracy concepts through their drawings and explanations, completed for a research study that used arts-based strategies to enhance children’s environmental understanding. This research study involved kindergarten children in Australia creating and exchanging postcards (drawings and explanations) of their local environments with their peers in Canada. Findings include that the kindergarten children, through creating postcards of their physical environments and explanations, demonstrated their growing understanding of numeracy concepts, such as spatial orientation, quantification and attributes of objects. The study argues for quality Intentional Teaching and the development of an ‘early childhood numeracy progress monitoring framework’ that maps and assesses children’s mathematical development. Introduction The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework and the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (2008) discussion paper suggest that a gradual shift in emphasis from‘free play’ to ‘structured learning’ in the early years of formal education gives a strong rationale for alignment between learning in early years and the wider education system. This, in turn, helps children to achieve academically in their schooling in the first eight years of life. The discussion paper further suggests that, while the notion of stages of development is now widely debated, general principles for teaching and learning are needed to orient early childhood educators and early childhood teacher educators towards commonly agreed-upon goals, strategies and modes of assessment related to changes in children’s capacities and needs as they grow. However, discussions around exactly when ‘structured learning’ should be introduced, as well as how ‘structured learning’ and ‘play-based learning’ are (re)conceptualized remain contestable and can at times result in opposite positions with no‘middle ground’. Brown (n.d.) writes that: When you enter the preschool search, you will want to consider what you value in your child’s early education. Do you want a lot offree play or more structured activities? Do you want the teacher to direct the day or foryour child to choose activities based on her interests? Are you interested in language immersion or a focus on music or the arts? Or maybe you want a little of everything? At one end are those who advocate for ‘structured learning’ and at the other end are those who advocate for ‘free play’ and child-directed

FAQs

How does intentional teaching support numeracy in early years?

Intentional teaching uses planned actions with specific outcomes, supporting both child-guided and adult-guided learning through resources, experiences, assistance, and evidence collection to extend learning.

What method did the study use to help children demonstrate numeracy concepts?

Children demonstrated numeracy through drawings and explanations, created as postcards representing their local environments and exchanged with peers.

What numeracy concepts were identified in the children’s work?

Findings indicate understanding of spatial orientation, quantification, and attributes of objects through the children’s drawings and explanations.

Oct 15, 2026

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