Effects of a Spatial Visualisation Training Program on Students’ Spatial Thinking and Mathematics Performance

• In Event: 3-133 - Associations Between Space and Number Across Development

Integrative Statement

Introduction. Spatial thinking and mathematics performance are highly correlated, although the mechanisms underlying these relationships have not been clearly defined (Lourenco, et al, 2018). Nevertheless, there is evidence to suggest that spatial training intervention programs improve student’s mathematics performance with regard to specific subtraction algorithms (Cheng & Mix, 2014) and more varied mathematics literacy tasks (Lowrie et al., 2017). In fact, Mix and Cheng (2012) have argued that the link between spatial thinking and numeracy “-is so well established that it no longer makes sense to ask whether they are related” (p. 206).
Since spatial reasoning is somewhat malleable (Uttal et al, 2013), intervention programs offer affordances to improve mathematics performance without the need for complex curriculum revision. Authors sought to determine the effectiveness of a concise (six-hour) spatial visualisation intervention program to improve elementary school students’ (1) spatial reasoning and (2) mathematics performance. The program included a pedagogical framework for lesson design, an heuristic to evoke student’s visualisation, and digital resources to complement the program lessons.
Hypotheses. It was hypothesized that improvements in mathematics and spatial ability of students in the intervention group would be significantly greater than of those in the control group, and that gains would be comparable to, or exceed those in the previous, longer intervention program (Lowrie et al., 2017).
Participants. Participants were 313 students in grades five and six from 21 classrooms across ten schools, with 11 experimental (91 males, 81 females) and ten control classes (72 males, 69 females).
Methods. The intervention program was delivered over three weeks by the participants own classroom teachers, while the control group received business-as-usual mathematics instruction. The intervention replaced the measurement and geometry units that would usually be taught from the Australian Curriculum.
Results. Participants in the intervention group but not the control group improved significantly on their spatial reasoning performance. There were also statistically significant differences on the math performance of the intervention group, when compared to their control group peers.
Discussion. Findings provide further evidence that spatial training improves mathematics performance. Gain scores in students’ mathematics were similar to findings from our previous study, despite the intervention being considerably shorter in duration. We argue that the explicit use of a pedagogical framework, and the introduction of digital resources to complement the program, compensated for the restricted intervention times. Furthermore, results offer new insights into which aspects of mathematics performance are most noticeably influenced by spatial training.

Author

• Thomas Lowrie, University of Canberra
  Presenting Author