Pearson Canada K-3 Mathematics Learning Progressions: a meta interpretation and systematic review of recent literature

The Pearson Canada K-3 Learning Progressions were developed to produce research-based descriptions of the key steps or progressions in students’ mathematical thinking specific for the Canadian context. Numerous empirical studies and existing curricular documents were consulted and the key findings, themes, and ideas were used to develop the big ideas, conceptual threads and indicators for the Pearson Canada K-3 Learning Progressions for strands of number, measurement, geometry, patterning and algebra, and data management and probability. Each progression underwent several cycles of peer review and revisions with reviewers across Canada.
The Pearson Canada K-3 Learning Progressions consist of big ideas specific to a particular mathematics strand, conceptual threads related to the big idea and a progression of indicators. The big ideas refer to the collection and integration of concepts under an overarching umbrella. These big ideas are thought of as a way to bring conceptual threads or mathematical ideas together. Conceptual threads are the main ideas that are linked to other ideas and go across several grades. The indicators are the specific skills or knowledge that are observable along a particular conceptual thread and reveal students’ ways of thinking at particular moments in time. The resulting Pearson Canada K-3 Learning Progressions offer a model to support teachers’ day-to-day work with students in mathematics. They can provide a focus for classroom instruction and activities, benchmarks for assessment of student’s mathematical thinking, or operate as a guide for understanding the sequence of skills and knowledge within a particular strand of mathematics.