This study explored the interest, outcome expectations, choice goals and choice actions in engineering and technology, collaboration value, problem solving attitudes, and spatial reasoning and orientation skills of 63 middle school females in grades six, seven, and eight. The participants were involved in a five full-day coding robotics summer…

There are consistent correlations between mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety, but the longitudinal relations among these constructs are not well understood nor are sex differences in these relations. To address this gap, mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety were longitudinally assessed for 342 (169 boys) adolescents from…

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in spatial reasoning as a component of mathematics education, with many countries incorporating it into their mathematics curriculum. The study of spatial reasoning in the learning areas of geometry presents an essential opportunity for improvement of students within the realm of mathematics…

There remains a clear deficiency in recruiting middle school students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine fields, especially for those students entering physiology from underrepresented backgrounds. A large part of this may be arising from a disconnect between how science is typically practiced at a collegiate and K-12…

Strong spatial skills are foundational in predicting students' performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Decades of research have considered the relationship between thinking spatially and how scientists reason and solve problems. However, few studies have examined the factors that influence improvement in…

The study tested the hypothesis that there are sex differences in the pathways to mathematical development. Three-hundred and 42 adolescents (169 boys) were assessed in various mathematics areas from arithmetic fluency to algebra across 6th to 9th grade, inclusive, and completed a battery of working memory, spatial, and intelligence measures in…

Adolescents' (n = 342, 169 boys) general algebra and algebra word problems performance were assessed in 9th grade as were intelligence, academic achievement, working memory, and spatial abilities in prior grades. The adolescents reported on their academic attitudes and anxiety and their teachers reported on their in-class attentive behavior in 7th…

Spatial ability was defined by Lohman (1996) as the ability to create, maintain, retrieve, and change visual pictures. Linn and Peterson (1985) distinguished among spatial perception, mental rotation, and spatial visualization. Spatial perception is the determination of spatial connections with respect to the orientation of the learners' body;…

Given the important role played by students' spatial reasoning skills, in this paper we analyse how students use these skills to solve problems involving 2D representations of 3D geometrical shapes. Using data from in total 1357 grades 4 to 9 students, we examine how they visualise shapes in the given diagrams and make use of properties of shapes…

General cognitive and specific numerical abilities that underlay mathematical performance have been heavily investigated among hearing students; however, the inquiry has rarely been applied to students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (d/Dhh). We examined whether general cognitive abilities (i.e. nonverbal IQ, processing speed, and spatial ability)…

Background: Key to optimizing Computational Thinking (CT) instruction is a precise understanding of the underlying cognitive skills. Román-González et al. (2017) reported unique contributions of spatial abilities and reasoning, whereas arithmetic was not significantly related to CT. Disentangling the influence of spatial and numerical skills on CT…

Spatial ability has been shown the positive correlations with the mathematics achievement of typically developing children. However, whether there is a relationship between spatial ability and mathematics achievement in deaf children and the mechanisms that underlie the relationship remain unknown. 256 deaf children in Grades 3 to 9 in two special…

Theories of multilingual language learning often assume that previous language learning experiences in at least two languages provide advantages for additional language learning. Other research emphasises the importance of general cognitive abilities as predictors of language learning. We test whether a set of predictions based on a multilingual…

Learning the basics of human anatomy is challenging for schoolchildren due to its three-dimensional nature and complexity as a system. This study created educational materials for learning about and teaching the human circulatory system based on augmented reality (AR) technology and a structure-behavior-function (SBF) model, including 2D/3D…

Two explanations for resolving dyslexia were investigated, one assuming resolving underlying deficits and another assuming compensatory mechanisms based on cognitive strengths. Thirty-six Dutch gifted secondary-school students with either persistent (n = 18) or resolving (n = 18) dyslexia participated. Groups, matched on IQ, were assessed on…