Uncovering Children's Spatial Reasoning Through Iterative Cognitive Interview Design

• In Event: Assessing Student Learning From a Cognitive Perspective: Challenges and Innovations

Abstract

Spatial reasoning is important to early mathematical development and is used daily to understand, navigate, and interact with the world (National Research Council, 2009). However, less classroom instruction focuses on spatial reasoning than numeracy, and few assessments exist to understand children’s knowledge, skills, and abilities in this construct domain (Bruce et al., 2012; Clements, 2004; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). In this paper, we describe an iterative process of designing task-based interview items to make children’s spatial reasoning visible during cognitive interviews. We based tasks on our early spatial reasoning skills learning progression and developed them using cyclical revisions. We provide evidence of the value in iteratively designing items to align with and assess the intended construct.

Authors

• Robyn Kristine Pinilla, Southern Methodist University

• Leanne R. Ketterlin-Geller, Southern Methodist University

• Cassandra Hatfield, Southern Methodist University