Workshop on Mathematical and Scientific Development in Early Childhood
The Center for Education, in consultation with its Mathematical Sciences Education Board and its Board on Science Education, will host a one-day workshop on Monday, March 22, 2004 in Washington, DC in Mathematical and Scientific Development in Early Childhood. This Center for Education convening activity will follow on previous NRC/DBASSE work (From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (2000), Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers (2000), and Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics (2001)), will look at what we know about the early learning of science and mathematics, and will bring together groups that normally do not collaborate to help the educational, research, and policy communities rethink early childhood education in mathematics and science. A Committee, chaired by Catherine Snow, Harvard University, has planned the workshop. The workshop will focus on two themes: 1) process reasoning and conceptual development in mathematics and science based on the cognitive literature and 2) knowledge to practice. Both themes will be addressed through presentations by three-person panels around the questions posed by the Committee and subsequent group discussions with the audience.
The first panel will consider
	How do children’s reasoning capabilities – in mathematics or science – develop across the early childhood years?
	How do children’s conceptual “building blocks” –in mathematics or science- develop across these years?
	In what ways do mathematical and scientific development in early childhood represent a distinct set of processes? An integrated process? And how do they relate to general development in early childhood?
The second panel will consider:
	How is the research base on early mathematical and scientific cognitive development currently reflected in early childhood curricula and settings in the United States?
	What might be some specific implications of this research base for the improvement of early childhood education in science and mathematics?

Workshop Agenda