Geoscience instructors depend upon photos, diagrams, and other visualizations to depict geologic structures and processes that occur over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. This proof-of-concept study tests click-on-diagram (COD) questions, administered using a classroom response system (CRS), as a research tool for identifying spatial…

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…

Technology is ubiquitous and takes many forms. Digital media consumption (e.g., television, video games, etc.) has increased significantly in its prevalence in our lives as well as in social acceptability. However, it has also been consistently implicated in poorer health outcomes. The extent to which cognitive functions are adversely affected by…

Connection-making among multiple representations is a crucial but difficult competence in STEM learning. Prior research has focused on one type of learning process involved in connection-making: sense-making processes leading to conceptual understanding of connections. Yet, other research suggests that a second type of learning process is…

This article investigates the sequential recall of manual alphabet letters by signing deaf adolescents under two presentation conditions: fingerspelling and the listing and ordering technique (LOT) of American Sign Language. Fingerspelling presents each letter in a manner similar to the spelling of spoken words: A letter is produced and then is no…

Background: Although spatial ability and mathematics performance are highly correlated, there is scant research on the extent to which spatial ability training can improve mathematics performance. Aims: This study evaluated the efficacy of a visuospatial intervention programme within classrooms to determine the effect on students' (1) spatial…

Implementing a play-based curriculum presents challenges for pre-service and in-service teachers given the current climate of standards and didactic pedagogies. This study highlights the value of playful learning and its rightful place in early childhood classrooms for children of all ages. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the…

Temperature can influence thermal comfort, working performance, and social behavior. In a classroom that is slightly cool, an assumption can be made that learning could be affected in a negative way. Considering this, a quasi-experimental study was done to determine if a significant difference of effective temperature have an effect on students':…

Rational number understanding is a critical building block for success in more advanced mathematics; however, how rational number magnitudes are conceptualized is not fully understood. In the current study, we used a dual-task working memory (WM) interference paradigm to investigate the dominant type of strategy (i.e., requiring verbal WM…

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether there are visual-spatial gender differences in two-year-olds, to investigate the environmental and cognitive factors that contribute to two-year-olds' visual-spatial skills, and to explore whether these factors differ for boys and girls. Children (N = 63; M[subscript age] = 28.17 months)…

Previous studies have shown that language contributes to humans' ability to orient using landmarks and shapes their use of frames of reference (FoRs) for memory. However, the role of environmental experience in shaping spatial cognition has not been investigated. This study addresses such a possibility by examining the use of FoRs in a nonverbal…

The most recent Kindergarten Common Core Mathematics State Standards include an emphasis on teaching geometry skills, such as recognizing, describing, naming, and composing shapes. This article provides five effective ideas for teachers of young children as they introduce and teach shapes.

Performance on verbal and mathematical tasks is enhanced when participants shift from using algorithms to retrieving information directly from memory (Siegler, 1988a). However, it is unknown whether a shift to retrieval is involved in dynamic spatial skill acquisition. For example, do athletes mentally extrapolate the trajectory of the ball, or do…

Researchers propose that experiencing and manipulating physical principles through objects allows young children to formulate scientific intuitions that may serve as precursors to learning in STEM subjects. This may be especially true when children discover these physical principles through object affordances during play. The present study…

Prior research has investigated the relation between children's language and spatial cognition by assessing the quantity of children's spatial word production, with limited attention to the context in which children use such words. This study tested whether 4-year-olds children's (N = 41, primarily white middle class) adaptive use of task-relevant…