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Project Rationale
The goal of the current project is to address the relationships between pattern skills, spatial skills, and math knowledge, and the potential use of patterning and spatial training to improved math outcomes for young children. Both pattern skills and spatial skills are related to mathematics knowledge (Cheng & Mix, 2013; Kidd, et al., 2013, 2014). However, the link between pattern and spatial skills themselves remains unknown. This knowledge is essential to discovering how these distinct skills contribute to children’s math knowledge.
There is an immediate need for this research, as policy makers and practitioners disagree on the importance of these skills in early mathematics learning. Despite a desire by preschool teachers to include pattern skills in their instruction, patterning was recently removed from the content standards of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010). Further, developing spatial skills receive very little attention in schools. Thus, this project is an urgently needed response to recent policy change and existing gaps in math standards.
Project Aims
This project focuses on the role of pattern skills and spatial skills on the development of mathematics knowledge in prekindergarten (prek) and kindergarten. Two studies will be conducted over three years to better understand the longitudinal development of these skills, as well as whether improving spatial or patterning skills leads to improvements in math performance.
- Study 1 addresses the concurrent and predictive relationships between pattern skills, spatial skills and math knowledge at the beginning and end of prek.
- Study 2 tests the potential of pattern and spatial training to improve math knowledge. Children’s math knowledge will be assessed before and after receiving training in either pattern or spatial skills. Performance will be compared across groups, allowing for an investigation of the causal role of pattern and spatial skills training on math development, as well as the crossover effects of pattern training on spatial skills and spatial training on patterning skills.
Project Description
Over 350 4- and 5-year-old children from public and private preschools in the greater Nashville area will participate. Participants will complete measures of pattern skills, spatial skills, math knowledge, and general cognitive skills. In Study 2, children will receive small-group instruction on patterning, spatial or literacy skills (the control group) over multiple sessions. Click here to find out more about specific projects, including study materials.