Visual Spatial Representation in Mathematical Problem Solving by Deaf and Hearing Students

Abstract

This research examined the use of visual-spatial representation by deaf and hearing students while solving mathematical problems. The connection between spatial skills and success in mathematics performance has long been established in the literature. This study examined the distinction between visual-spatial "schematic" representations that encode the spatial relations described in a problem versus visual-spatial "pictorial" representations that encode only the visual appearance of the objects described in a problem. A total of 305 hearing (n = 156) and deaf (n = 149) participants from middle school, high school, and college participated in this study. At all educational levels, the hearing students performed significantly better in solving the mathematical problems compared to their deaf peers. Although the deaf baccalaureate students exhibited the highest performance of all the deaf participants, they only performed as well as the hearing middle school students who were the lowest scoring hearing group. Deaf students remained flat in their performance on the mathematical problem-solving task from middle school through the college associate degree level. The analysis of the students' problem representations showed that the hearing participants utilized visual-spatial schematic representation to a greater extent than did the deaf participants. However, the use of visual-spatial schematic representations was a stronger positive predictor of mathematical problem-solving performance for the deaf students. When deaf students' problem representation focused simply on the visual-spatial pictorial or iconic aspects of the mathematical problems, there was a negative predictive relationship with their problem-solving performance. On two measures of visual-spatial abilities, the hearing students in high school and college performed significantly better than their deaf peers.

The role of visual representation type, spatial ability, and reading comprehension in word problem solving: An item-level analysis in elementary school children

“…Inline with these earlier findings, the current study showed that spatial ability is a significant and relevant basic ability which increases the chance of solving a word problem successfully (Blatto-Vallee et al, 2007;Boonen et al, 2013;Hegarty & Kozhevnikov, 1999). In particular, our findings clarified the importance of spatial ability for the accurate visual-schematic representation type.…”

“…In previous studies, a positive relationship between visual representation type and word problem solving performance has been established by calculating correlations between the total amount of (specific) visual representations produced and the total amount of correctly solved word problems (e.g., Blatto-Vallee, Kelly, Gaustad, Porter, & Fonzi, 2007;Guoliang, 2003;Hegarty & Kozhevnikov, 1999;Krawec, 2010Krawec, , 2012Van Garderen, 2006;Van Garderen & Montague, 2003). However, calculating the correlation between two sum scores is an example of a test-level approach entailing limitations to be considered in this study.…”

The relation between children’s constructive play activities, spatial ability, and mathematical word problem-solving performance: a mediation analysis in sixth-grade students

“…Besides the positive relation between constructive play and children’s spatial ability, a positive relation between spatial ability and mathematical ability, particularly mathematical word problem solving, is also reported in several studies (Guay and McDaniel, 1977; Lean and Clements, 1981; Tracy, 1987; Casey et al, 1992; Hegarty and Kozhevnikov, 1999; Kozhevnikov et al, 2002; Blatto-Vallee et al, 2007; Beentjes, 2008). Blatto-Vallee et al (2007) showed, for example, that spatial ability explained almost 20% of unique variance in mathematical word problem-solving performance.…”

“…The aim of the present study is to examine the link between children’s constructive play activities and two interrelated factors, namely spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performance. Although a positive relation between constructive play and spatial ability is reported by several authors (e.g., Bjorklund and Douglas-Brown, 2008; Levine et al, 2012) as well as a positive relation between spatial ability and mathematical word problem-solving performance (Blatto-Vallee et al, 2007; Beentjes, 2008; Casey et al, 2008), a relation between constructive play and mathematical word problem-solving performance is barely investigated. A possible reason for this absence is that spatial ability acts as a mediator in the relation between children’s constructive play activities and their performances on mathematical word problems.…”

Habilidades matemáticas iniciais em crianças surdas e ouvintes

“…Esta hipótese tem sido reiterada por vários estudos na área que demonstraram que as crianças surdas apresentam um tempo e trajetória de desenvolvimento similar, ou até mesmo superior, ao das crianças ouvintes em: reco nhecimento facial, construções com blocos lógicos, percepção de movimentos, memória espacial e localização espacial (BEVALIER et al, 2006;BLATTO-VALLEE et al, 2007;SATO et al, 2007). A superioridade no desenvolvimento destas funções cognitivas deve-se ao uso da língua de Disponível em <http://www.cedes.unicamp.br> Habilidades matemáticas iniciais em crianças surdas e ouvintes sinais que, por suas características visuo-espaciais, contribui positivamente para o desenvolvimento das habilidades de manipulação da informação visual e espacial (BULL et al, 2006;BLATTO-VALLEE et al, 2007). Crianças surdas que não são expostas a estímulos linguísticos e não recebem educação apropriada, em idade apropriada, não demonstram esta similaridade e superioridade no desenvolvimento destas funções cognitivas.…”