Introducing kindergarten children to the engineering design process (EDP) is an important objective of early STEM education. Studies indicate that children often miss the crucial steps of testing and optimising during the EDP and do not persist in making solutions better. The present study explores how children's goal awareness, self-evaluation…

Symmetric objects are known to be perceived easier than asymmetric objects, because less information has to be processed. Therefore, symmetric objects are often used for spatial tasks. However, in perspective-taking the use of symmetric objects can also cause difficulties, as two side-views of these objects are mirror-images of each other. To…

The general purpose of the study was to promote the research on effects of physical activity on mathematical performance and brain functions, which is of particular interest regarding children's education as well as for all adults. Several studies have identified an influence of cycling on cognitive processes and brain activity. In the present…

By 3 years of age, children can solve tasks involving physical principles such as locating a ball that rolled down a ramp behind an occluder by the position of a partially visible solid wall (Berthier, DeBlois, Poirer, Novak, & Clifton, 2000; Hood, Carey, & Prasada, 2000). However, the extent to which children use physical information (the…

The papers in the monograph address different topics related to mathematics teaching and learning processes which are of great interest to both students and prospective teachers. Some papers open new research questions, some show examples of good practice and others provide more information about earlier findings. The monograph consists of six…

This study investigated quantitative and qualitative changes in mental rotation performance and solution strategies with a focus on sex differences. German children (N = 519) completed the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) in the 5th and 6th grades (interval: one year; age range at time 1: 10-11 years). Boys on average outperformed girls on both…