This research was conducted to identify relationships between the teachers’ perceptions of the
goals and contents for the early childhood mathematics education and their practices in
support of them. Also, differences were examined in the teachers’ perceptions and practices
between the subgroups by teacher’s education and the ages of the children under their care.
A questionnaire survey was conducted among a total of 132 early childhood mathematics
teachers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, and its results are as follows: (1) in terms of
the teachers’ perceptions of the goals and contents of early childhood mathematics education,
the perceptions of the teachers with higher educational levels and of those who were in charge
of older children were higher; (2) with regard to the teachers’ practices in support of the goals
and contents of early childhood mathematics education, the practices of the teachers with
higher educational levels and of those who were in charge of older children were higher; and
(3) it was found that the teachers generally did not realize the necessity of evaluation in early
childhood mathematics education, and that the teaching method that was mainly used by the
early childhood mathematics teachers was manipulative play or games. Along with the main
results of this study, implications for research and practice are discussed.