Showing papers by "David Neary published in 2023"
1 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors developed and validated a mathematics-specific spatial vocabulary measure for upper elementary school students, which was used to assess upper elementary students' spatial abilities and attitudes and anxiety.
Abstract: This study describes the development and initial validation of a mathematics-specific spatial vocabulary measure for upper elementary school students. Reviews of spatial vocabulary items, mathematics textbooks, and Mathematics Common Core State Standards identified 720 mathematical terms, 148 of which had spatial content (e.g., edge). In total, 29 of these items were appropriate for elementary students, and a pilot study (59 fourth graders) indicated that nine of them were too difficult (< 50% correct) or too easy (> 95% correct). The remaining 20 items were retained as a spatial vocabulary measure and administered to 181 (75 girls, mean age = 119.73 months, SD =4.01) fourth graders, along with measures of geometry, arithmetic, spatial abilities, verbal memory span, and mathematics attitudes and anxiety. A Rasch model indicated that all 20 items assessed an underlying spatial vocabulary latent construct. The convergent and discriminant validity of the vocabulary measure was supported by stronger correlations with theoretically related (i.e., geometry) than with more distantly related (i.e., arithmetic) mathematics content and stronger relations with spatial abilities than with verbal memory span or mathematics attitudes and anxiety. Simultaneous regression analyses and structural equation models, including all measures, confirmed this pattern, whereby spatial vocabulary was predicted by geometry knowledge and spatial abilities but not by verbal memory span, mathematics attitudes and anxiety. Thus, the measure developed in this study helps in assessing upper elementary students' mathematics-specific spatial vocabulary.
TL;DR: In this article , the authors report results from a study focused specifically on how measures of cognitive ability (fluid intelligence and working memory) are associated with children's perceptions of their social networks assessed by a consecutive pile-sort method.
TL;DR: This article explored the associated argument that framing biologically secondary mathematics learning in biologically primary contexts will increase students' learning motivation, and investigated this hypothesis by presenting standard math content in primary scenarios to a sample of Grade 9 adolescents (n = 32, age = 15) and compared their motivation before and after the intervention.