Markus Szczesny

The present study investigated the development of n= 129 early childhood teachers’ mathematics content knowledge, mathematics pedagogical content knowledge, mathematics anxiety, and enjoyment of mathematics over 4 years from teacher training to practice. Latent autoregressive models with cross-lagged effects were applied. Scalar measurement invariance of the model also allowed analyses of intraindividual change of knowledge and emotions. Results indicate a decline of mathematics anxiety, an increase of enjoyment and mathematics content knowledge and mathematics pedagogical content knowledge, and medium (emotions) to strong (knowledge) autoregressive but limited cross-lagged effects. No cross-lagged effects between emotions and knowledge over time were found. All but one of the correlations at training disappeared during transition to practice. Theoretically assumed differences …

The development of mathematical competencies in children is of central importance to exploring the world from a child’s perspective, to their performance at school (Duncan et al., 2007; Vandell, Burchinal, & Pierce, 2016) and to their future life (OECD, 2018). The development of children’s mathematical competencies depends on the one hand on their individuality (Krajewski, Nieding, & Schneider, 2008); on the other hand, the learning environment of the educational system plays a significant role (Lehrl, Kluczniok, & Rossbach, 2016). In a meta-analysis of early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions in nine European countries, Ulferts, Wolf and Anders (2019) were able to establish that the domain-specific process quality is of particularly importance:“Domainspecific process quality […] seems to be of particular value to outcomes in mathematics, which indicates a stronger dependency on specific …