Scaling up Spatial Development: A Closer Look at Children's Scaling Ability and Its Relation to Number Knowledge

ABSTRACT Spatial skills are consistently linked to mathematical reasoning, and are sensitive to intervention. One important spatial skill is spatial scaling. We evaluated whether (1) a playful scaling game might promote learning by providing feedback during play, and (2) spatial scaling is related t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mind, brain and education brain and education, 2018-09, Vol.12 (3), p.110-119
Main Authors: Jirout, Jamie J., Holmes, Corinne A., Ramsook, Kizzann Ashana, Newcombe, Nora S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Children
Computation
Educational Games
Feedback (Response)
Knowledge Level
Mathematical Logic
Mathematics Skills
Numbers
Scaling
Skills
Spatial Ability
Vocabulary
Young Children
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT Spatial skills are consistently linked to mathematical reasoning, and are sensitive to intervention. One important spatial skill is spatial scaling. We evaluated whether (1) a playful scaling game might promote learning by providing feedback during play, and (2) spatial scaling is related to number‐line estimation (NLE) based on the mutual reliance on relative magnitude reasoning. Forty‐eight children, ages 5.5–8.3, completed a playful scaling game and a NLE task. Results show that children improve from the first to second half of the task, especially for more difficult trials and for the lowest performing children. In addition, scaling and NLE relate when controlling for age and vocabulary. Similar improvement on the task and relations to NLE were observed in a conceptual replication (N = 52). These results provide support for further study of improving spatial scaling in children, with the possibility to test whether scaling could support related mathematical skills as well.
ISSN:1751-2271
1751-228X
DOI:10.1111/mbe.12182