Lessons Learned From a Program to Improve Spatial Skills in Early Elementary School

• In Event: Lesson Learned About Increasing Mathematics Achievement Through Spatial Instruction

Abstract

For this study, the curriculum that was used to improve spatial skills and mathematics achievement in adults was revised for elementary school populations.

Prior research with adults indicates that mathematics achievement can be improved through improvements in spatial skills. For example, Sorby, Casey, and Dulaney (2013) increased retention and performance in an engineering program, particularly among females, when undergraduate students took a course designed to improve spatial skills with a specific focus on three-dimensional mental rotation. This study assessed the impact of a program derived from the program developed by Sorby on the spatial skills and number sense of early elementary school children.

Method
Second, third and fourth grade students in three counties participated in an experiment designed to compare changes in spatial skills and number sense as a function of participation in the program (treatment group) or control group. Students were pretested on number sense measures including place value, number magnitude, cognitive strategy use and complex word problem solving and spatial skills. Working memory and inhibition were pretested with the goal of controlling the effects of these variables on the posttest measures.
For the instructional program, half of the students were randomly assigned to 5 weeks (10 sessions) of instruction to improve spatial skills as a part of afterschool programming. Over the 5 weeks they worked on their spatial skills related to cutting planes, flat patterns, isometric transformations, orthographic transformations and rotation. For each of these spatial topics a combination of discussion, concrete manipulatives and video animation was used. For example, for the cutting planes lessons the students began by folding paper to make shapes. They then were given images of shapes (flat patterns) that could mentally folded into boxes and other shapes. The teacher worked with the students to understand how patterns could be folded to create boxes and other three-dimensional shapes. This was followed by discussions of what the shapes would look like if the pattern (e.g., box) was sliced at a certain point. Cubes made of clay were given to the students so that they could slice the pattern vertically, horizontally, and diagonally to see the pattern that emerges. Next, video animations were used to show what a pattern looks like when it is sliced. The teacher discussed with the children how cutting shapes produces new and different shapes. At the end of the five weeks of instruction all students were posttested on the same spatial skills and number sense tasks.

Results/significance: No significant improvements in spatial skills were found for students in the treatment group. Likewise, students who received the instruction did not show improved number sense. Observers of instruction concluded that spatial skills instruction needs to focus on two-dimensional spatial processing, as opposed to three-dimensional processing and to be longer. Although the program did not result in improved spatial skills it indicates that relatively short term instruction in after school programs is not sufficient and more intensive work is needed to change spatial skills in this age group.

Authors

• Martha Carr, University of Georgia

• Jennifer Lynn Roth, University of Georgia

• Yi Jung Lee, University of Georgia