Abstract
Although psychological literature has demonstrated that spatial reasoning and mathematics performance are correlated, there is scant research on these relationships in the middle years. The current study examined the commonalities and differences in students’ performance on instruments that measured three spatial reasoning constructs and two mathematics content areas. There were no gender differences in terms of performance on the three constructs that measured students’ spatial visualisation, mental rotation and spatial orientation. There were strong positive relationships between the students’ spatial reasoning and mathematics performance (r=0.66), with over 44% of shared variance between the two dimensions. Our study highlights the importance of spatial reasoning in the mathematics curriculum and the necessary promotion of this dimension as a general numeracy capability.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | 39th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia |
| Subtitle of host publication | Opening up mathematics education research |
| Editors | Bruce White, Mohan Chinnappan, Sven Trenholm |
| Place of Publication | Adelaide |
| Publisher | Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Incorporated |
| Pages | 407-414 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2016 |
| Event | 39th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia: MERGA 39 - Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia Duration: 3 Jul 2016 → 7 Jul 2016 https://www.mathunion.org/news-and-events/2016-07-03/merga-39-39th-annual-conference-merga |
Conference
| Conference | 39th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Australia |
| City | Adelaide |
| Period | 3/07/16 → 7/07/16 |
| Internet address |