Examining the role of spatial skills and mathematics motivation on middle school mathematics achievement

Atit, Kinnari; Power, Jason Richard; Veurink, Norma; Uttal, David H.; Sorby, Sheryl A.; Panther, Grace; Msall, Camille; Fiorella, Logan; Carr, Martha

doi:10.1186/s40594-020-00234-3

Cited by 41 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Their findings showed that students' mathematics performance improved following the classroom-based intervention and they claim that this was the first such study to find this in an elementary school setting. In a recent study, Atit et al (2020) examined the relationship between motivation for mathematics and spatial skills in middle school mathematics students and they found that both motivation and spatial skills interact significantly to predict student mathematics performance.…”

Section: Spatial Thinking In Schools and Collegesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We know that targeted spatial training can enhance spatial skills, but it is clear that enhanced spatial performance does not always correlate with success across all STEM disciplines. While spatial training has been shown to positively impact some aspects of academic performance, other variables are also at play including motivation (Atit et al, 2020), self-efficacy (Power & Sorby, 2020), and spatial anxiety (Atit et al, 2018).…”

Section: Spatial Thinking In Schools and Collegesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bridging the gap: blending spatial skills instruction into a technology teacher preparation programme

Lane

Sorby

2021

Int J Technol Des Educ

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In recent years, there has been a surge in research in spatial thinking across the international community. We now know that spatial skills are malleable and that they are linked to success across multiple disciplines, most notably Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). While spatial skills have been examined by cognitive scientists in laboratory environments for decades, current research is examining how these skills can be developed in field-based environments. In this paper, we present findings from a study within a Technology Teacher preparation programme where we examined first-year students’ spatial skills on entry to university. We explain why it was necessary to embed a spatial skills intervention into Year 1 of the programme and we describe the impact that this had on students’ spatial scores and on academic performance. The findings from our study highlight a consistent gender gap in spatial scores at the start of the first-year with female students entering the Technology Teacher preparation programme at a lower base level than male students. We describe how we integrated spatial development activities into an existing course and how an improvement in spatial scores and overall course performance was observed. The paper concludes by discussing the long-term sustainability of integrating spatial interventions within teacher preparation programmes while also highlighting the importance of future research to examine spatial skills as a fundamental component of technological capability.

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Section: Spatial Thinking In Schools and Collegesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spatial Thinking In Schools and Collegesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the gap: blending spatial skills instruction into a technology teacher preparation programme

Lane

Sorby

2021

Int J Technol Des Educ

Self Cite

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“…Moreover, this study did not collect precise gender breakdown of the participants and hence did not examine potential gender differences. It is noted that the gender representations from the respective schools were not visibly different, yet there remains room for exploring variables such as gender, as well as spatial skills and motivation, on students' geometry outcomes (Atit et al, 2020).…”

Section: Limitations Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring differences in primary students’ geometry learning outcomes in two technology-enhanced environments: dynamic geometry and 3D printing

Shi

Ting

2020

IJ STEM Ed

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Background This paper compares the effects of two classroom-based technology-enhanced teaching interventions, conducted in two schools in sixth (age 11–12) grade. In one school, the intervention involves the use of a class set of 3D Printing Pens, and in another school the use of dynamic geometry environments, for inquiry-based learning of the relations among the number of vertices, edges, and faces of prisms and pyramids. An instrument was designed as guided by the van Hiele model of geometric thinking and administered to the two groups in the form of pretests, posttests, and delayed posttests to assess students’ prior knowledge before the intervention started, the learning outcomes obtained immediately after intervention, and the retention of knowledge after the interventions had been completed for a sustained period of time. The purpose of this study is to explore differences in geometry learning outcomes in two technology-enhanced environments, one that involves dynamic, visual representations of geometry and another that involves embodied actions of constructing physical 3D solids. Results The results show that students using dynamic geometry improved at a higher rate than those using 3D Pens. On the other hand, students with the aid of 3D Pens demonstrated better retention of the properties of 3D solids than their dynamic geometry counterparts. Namely, the posttest results show that the dynamic geometry environment (DGE) group generally outperformed the 3D Pen group across categories. The observed outperformance by the DGE group on “advanced” implies that the DGE technology had a stronger effect on higher levels of geometric learning. However, the results from the ANCOVA suggest that the retention effect was more significant with 3D Pens. Conclusions This study has established evidence that the DGE instructions produced strong but relatively temporary geometry learning outcomes, while 3D Pen instructions can help solidify that knowledge. The results of this study further shed light on the effect of visual and sensory-motor experiences on school mathematics learning and corroborate previous work showing that the effects of gesture are particularly good at promoting long-lasting learning.

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“…In addition to this, spatial ability is quite important for the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (Gilligan, Flouri & Farran, 2017;Kuhl, Lim, Guerriero & van Damme, 2019;Liu, Huang, Yu, & Dou, 2020). For instance, the results of the research conducted by Atit et al (2020), suggest that spatial skills play a significant role in middle school students' mathematics achievement. Delialioğlu and Aşkar (1999) determined that there is a positive, significant, and direct relationship between the spatial abilities of middle-school students and physics success.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study on the Comparison of Geometrical-Mechanical Intelligence Games Activities that are Conducted with Concrete Materials and in Computer Environment

Sütçü

2021

Participatory Educational Research

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In this study it was aimed to determine the effect of geometricalmechanical intelligence games activities that are conducted with concrete materials and in computer environment on the spatial visualization and mental rotation skills of prospective teachers and to examine the opinions of prospective teachers about the activities. The research was conducted with mixed-method research. The study group consists of 49 prospective teachers. The obtained quantitative data were collected with "Differential Aptitude Test" and "Mental Rotation Test" and qualitative data were collected with "Open-Ended Questionnaire". In the analysis of obtained quantitative data, paired samples t-test and one-way analysis of covariance were used and in the analysis of qualitative data, content analysis was used. According to the findings in the research, it was determined that the activities that are conducted both with concrete materials and in computer environment significantly increased the spatial visualization and mental rotation skills of prospective teachers. In addition to this, it was determined that there was not a difference between the increases in the spatial visualization and mental rotation skills of prospective teachers after the activities were conducted. Furthermore, prospective teachers stated that they had fun while performing the activities, the activities developed their visual/spatial intelligence, threedimensional thinking and establishing a part-whole relationship, increased their attention and concentration and thought and decided faster and more accurate in the second time they were answering the spatial ability tests.

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Examining the role of spatial skills and mathematics motivation on middle school mathematics achievement

Cited by 41 publications

References 80 publications

Bridging the gap: blending spatial skills instruction into a technology teacher preparation programme

Bridging the gap: blending spatial skills instruction into a technology teacher preparation programme

Exploring differences in primary students’ geometry learning outcomes in two technology-enhanced environments: dynamic geometry and 3D printing

A Study on the Comparison of Geometrical-Mechanical Intelligence Games Activities that are Conducted with Concrete Materials and in Computer Environment

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