UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Spanish-speaking population has grown by 24 percent in the United States since 2000, representing one-third of all children ages 8 and under. A new Penn State project will work directly with Latino families to develop new resources to help foster learning of mathematics in the home that are sensitive to the cultural and social complexities of Latino communities. 

Jimena Cosso, assistant professor of education and Social Science Research Insititute (SSRI) affiliated faculty member, received an SSRI Level 2 Seed Grant to address how Latino children learn mathematics in the home environment and to co-develop tools like a potential mobile app for Latino families. The grant will also support building meaningful partnerships with Latino families in Harrisburg. 

“Currently, there are few studies that focus on learning mathematics in the home, and there are fewer studies that focus on Latino families specifically,” said Cosso. 

She noted that while there is current measurement for how children learn mathematics at home, it is more geared towards predominantly white families and is not culturally sensitive to Latino families. For example, Latino families tend to be larger and often include extended family members like grandparents compared to other cultural groups.  
 
“Traditionally, we think about parents specifically teaching their children, but in Latino families, it could be grandparents or siblings who might be the ones helping with homework or teaching children to count and work on fractions,” said Cosso.  

Additionally, Latino parents might already be spontaneously teaching mathematics in the home to their children, but the data is not capturing it because the measurement is simply not accounting for different ways of learning.   

Cosso, who has already developed a culturally sensitive measurement geared towards Latino families, plans to test the measurement through working with Penn State’s Parents and Children Together (PACT) program. PACT is a Penn State and Harrisburg Community Research Alliance based in community-university partnerships, that aims to build trust with the community, engage the community in research, and partner with investigators to improve the research. Cosso is already an affiliate of PACT. 

“Connecting in-person with these families is so important because their feedback will provide key insights into what works specifically for them,” noted Cosso.  

Additionally, she will collect data from conducting focus groups starting this summer with Latino families to understand how they interact with their children in relation to learning mathematics. Then she will use the focus group data to co-design tools and resources that will aid Latino families in helping their children learn mathematics at home.  

“My hope is that by connecting with these families, we’re able to figure out what their needs are for learning mathematics at home, and we’re able to craft resources and tools that will help their children succeed,” added Cosso. 

Following the data collection process with the focus groups and validation process of her measurement, Cosso aims to apply for a National Science Foundation grant that will further this work.