Whilst spatial reasoning skills have been found to predict mathematical achievement, little is known about how primary (elementary) students' conceptual understanding of three-dimensional objects develops. In this article, we report a qualitative study and the impact of rich learning experiences on 48 Years 3-6 students' geometric reasoning…

In this paper, we demonstrate how atypical visual representations of a triangle, square or a parallelogram may hinder students' understanding of a median and altitude. We analyze responses and reasoning given by 16 preservice middle school teachers in a Geometry Connection class. Particularly, the data were garnered from three specific questions…

Mathematical abstraction is an important process in mathematical thinking. Also, visualization is a strong tool for searching mathematical problems, giving meaning to mathematical concepts and the relationships between them. In this paper, we aim to investigate the role of visualizations in mathematical abstraction through a case study on five…

Individuals with better spatial thinking have increased interest and greater achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009). This relationship means that STEM education may benefit from leveraging spatial thinking, but measures of spatial thinking as they relate to specific…

Although the 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…

This design-based research project investigated the development of functional thinking in algebra for the upper primary years of schooling. Ten teachers and their students were involved in a sequence of five cycles of collaborative planning, team-teaching, evaluating and revising five lessons on functional thinking for their students over one…