Evidence for associations between spatial skills and mathematics has led to the argument that spatial visualization plays a role in mathematical calculation. However, there is no single accepted definition of what spatial visualization encompasses. Here, we investigated spatial visualization in the context of a mental imagery framework. We applied…

This study was grounded in the spatial computational thinking model developed by the "3D Weather" project funded by the NSF STEM+C program. The model reflects a discipline-based perspective towards computational thinking and captures the spatial nature of computational thinking in meteorology and the reliance of computational thinking on…

Understanding fraction as a quantity has been identified as a key developmental understanding. In this study, students in Grades 5, 8, and 11 were asked to compare the areas of two halves of the same square--a rectangle and a right triangle. Findings from this study suggest that students who understand fraction as a quantity use reasoning related…

Mental rotation is positively related to arithmetic ability; however, the mechanism underlying this relationship remains unclear. The possible roles of working memory, place-value concept, and number line estimation in the correlation between mental rotation and whole-number computation were investigated. One hundred and fifty-five first-grade…

Recently, there has been increasing evidence showing that males estimate whole numbers more accurately than females on the number line. However, relatively little is known about what factors contribute to this gender gap. The current study explored potential mediators of the gender difference in number line estimation, including spatial skills and…

The current study investigated college students' content knowledge and cognitive abilities as factors associated with their algebra performance, and examined how combinations of content knowledge and cognitive abilities related to their algebra performance. Specifically, the investigation examined the content knowledge factors of computational…

A Bayesian model formulation of the deterministic inputs, noisy "and" gate (DINA) model is presented. Gibbs sampling is employed to simulate from the joint posterior distribution of item guessing and slipping parameters, subject attribute parameters, and latent class probabilities. The procedure extends concepts in Béguin and Glas,…

The greatest difficulty that is encountered by students in thermodynamics classes is to find relationships between variables and to solve a total differential equation that relates one thermodynamic state variable to two mutually independent state variables. Rules of differentiation, including the total differential and the cyclic rule, are…

A large part of the empirical research in the field of visual attention has focused on various concrete paradigms. However, as yet, there has been no clear demonstration of whether or not these paradigms are indeed measuring the same underlying construct. We collected a very large data set (nearly 1.3 million trials) to address this question. We…

Enabling learning through meaningful classroom experiences has always been a challenge for teachers. Bringing about a balance of the "conceptual" and the "hands-on", along with contextual embeddedness in problem-solving situations, broadly characterises the experience of development and trials of three Design and Technology…

The aim of the 2018 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA) conference was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There have been advances in both cognitive…

Mathematics educators frequently recommend that students use strategies for measurement estimation, such as the reference point or benchmark strategy; however, little is known about the effects of using this strategy on estimation accuracy or representations of standard measurement units. One reason for the paucity of research in this area is that…

Discusses important lessons on the mathematics of manufacturing and how curriculum content and teaching can prepare students for working. Features concepts such as the importance of spatial and geometric reasoning, problem solving, numbers and computation, and measurement. (ASK)

Spatial visualization is an important skill that deserves instructional attention. Strong evidence supports the claim that "measures of mathematical ability tend to be strongly correlated with spatial ability" (Anderson 2000). Thus, there is every reason to believe that time spent helping students develop their spatial visualization skills will…

Sample materials from a primary training packet are included. The packets were developed as a part of a teacher development program aimed at improving elementary mathematics by giving teachers practical ideas. The sample student materials are drawn from the areas of geometry and oral mathematics. (PK)