Who Will Teach Me Math? Promoting Kindergarten Mathematics By Preschool Para Educators

Over the past decade, there has been a change in the perception towards kindergartens in Israel as well as in the training of its educational staff.While the kindergarten teacher is required to have an academic education, the preschool para-educator (PPE) is only required to complete 12 years of schooling education and to undergo a designated training course.The contents of the PPE course, which does not cover the field of early childhood mathematics, do not correlate with the role of the PPE, who is required to promotion mathematical abilities among kindergarteners.In light of this discrepancy, the need for appropriate training to PPEs, arises.This study describes current literature on the contemporary pedagogies in Israeli kindergartens, the role of the educational staff in the kindergarten, including the PPE, the development of early childhood mathematical thinking, and the different ways for teaching mathematics in kindergarten.The current study raises the need for a new training program, focuses on training PPEs in arithmetic for kindergarten with the ultimate goal of improving the teaching of arithmetic in kindergarten.Due to its importance as a basis for studying mathematics and adapting to the student's abilities, this training program can be extended to other mathematical disciplines, such as early geometry, and may be proposed to PPEs in general as well as special education kindergartens in Israel.