What Is Subitising and Why Should I Care about Cardinality?
Blog by Sally Leese, HEART Midlands Stronger Practice Hub
Using available resources to demystify the vocabulary of mathematics
The results for children at the end of their Foundation Stage for maths in our area are below the national average.
As we have supported settings with a lot around communication and language we decided it was time to look at the skills and knowledge of teaching mathematics.
It all started with a conversation with a colleague who was discussing their progress on the PDP3—the Department for Education’s (DfE) Professional Development Programme (PDP) for early years practitioners.
While we were talking about the mathematical development element I pondered why the new Development Matters confused things by using vocabulary such as ‘subitising’ and ‘cardinality’.
He explained, “that is the correct vocabulary for what we are teaching and to not use the correct terminology is undervaluing what we do as early years educators.”
He went on to say that if we, as a workforce, undervalue what we do then how can we expect others to value us too?
This was a moment of realisation for me and led to planning a network to build the confidence of early years colleagues around the language and opportunities we provide for maths.
I needed to look no further than the resources already available through the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) Evidence Store and the DfE’s online Child Development Module 6: Mathematics.
What the evidence says
We started by looking at the evidence, which told us that:
“It is effective to teach one-to-one correspondence when counting, which means helping children to pair one number word with one (and only one) item.”
The feeling in the room was that this was not new news.
We then asked our early years colleagues to list all the opportunities they utilise for counting items in a session with children.
There were tons of examples shared, even if in a tired, ‘this is blindingly obvious’ way!
We used this to show that the evidence store isn’t reinventing anything. It is using evidence to show how children learn best even if we know, as strong early years practitioners, that children need to learn to count and we do it lots and really well.
It seems that, in an early years setting, every opportunity is utilised to count, and count, and count again!
This counting is all useful, but the evidence goes on to show us that our children need more.
Subitising and cardinality
So we moved on to subitising and cardinality….
We asked how confident colleagues were with these terms. There was mixed understanding and awareness, so we used the DfE Child Development modules to unpick exactly what these mean.
Image source: DfE Child Development Module 6: Mathematics
We used the pictures from the modules to show that we, as competent maths learners, don’t need to actually count the items in the pictures to know how many there are (subitising) and that once we have counted how many items we have, we can hold that amount in our heads and use it (cardinality).
How did we learn to do this? How can we support children to do this?
We then challenged our colleagues to list how often they use everyday situations in their settings to develop subitising or cardinality.
This developed into how can we develop these skills with our children in our sessions?
Instead of always counting, can we challenge our children to tell us how many plates, cups, strawberries there are just by looking?
Can we expect children to hold a number in their head?
Count the number of children but then know how many pencils, apples, teddies are needed for the group, without recounting again?
Can we use the terminology with children?
For example, when a child shows you their age on their fingers can we state that it is good subitising?
It was energising and exciting to develop the idea in simple, everyday experiences!
Things to try in your own setting
Use the EEF Early Years Evidence Store to unpick the stages of mathematical development. This number spiral is useful:
Image source: EEF Evidence Store: Early Mathematics
List all the ways in which you count with children, developing their one-to-one correspondence
Explore the DfE’s Child Development Module 6: Mathematics to secure an understanding of the progression of number
Explore how you can promote and support these skills within your own learning environment and sessions
Let me know how you get on!
Blog author: Sally Leese, HEART Midlands Stronger Practice Hub
Sally has worked in early years for nearly 20 years as a Primary School teacher, Children’s Centre Teacher, PVI Manager, LA adviser, Maintained Nursery School Head Teacher and HEART Midlands Early Years Stronger Practice Hub partner.