24. Mathematics Education Research
Paper
Spatial Abilities Mediate the Relationship Between Fundamental Movement Skills Development and Mathematics Achievement in Primary School Children
Jessica Scott, Tim Jay, Christopher Spray
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Presenting Author: Scott, Jessica
This study explored the association between the development of fundamental movement skills (FMS) and mathematics achievement, and whether the understanding of specific spatial concepts mediated these relationships.
FMS are basic locomotor, object manipulation, and stability patterns that lead to complex specialised skills and later physical activity (Gallahue & Ozmun, 2006). It has been well established that FMS have beneficial effects on children’s holistic development (Brown & Cairney, 2020), but research examining other benefits, such as academic achievement, are less established. This is an important avenue to examine as achievement in mathematics has been declining internationally (Wijsman et al., 2016). Within the UK, the Department for Education (2015) reported that many primary school children do not meet the required levels of mathematics needed to be ready for secondary school. Therefore, if factors that may positively affect mathematics performance in young children are identified, then more benefits could occur later in life.
Research has found that overall FMS scores are positively associated with mathematics scores in children (de Bruijn et al., 2019). Spatial ability may be an explanatory factor to explain this association. Spatial ability, as described by Uttal et al. (2013), distinguishes spatial abilities between intrinsic and extrinsic, and static and dynamic skills, resulting in a 2x2 classification of spatial ability. Intrinsic-static spatial ability involves distinguishing the characteristics of a stationary object without the need for mental transformation. The ability to distinguish the characteristics of an object whilst moving it or changing its location, orientation, or dimensions either physically or mentally is defined as intrinsic-dynamic spatial ability. Extrinsic-static spatial ability involves determining the relations among objects in a group relative to one another without mental transformation, whereas extrinsic-dynamic spatial ability involves determining group relations relative to one another whilst objects are moving and require changes in orientation, location, and dimension either physically or mentally. Based on this classification, research has found that FMS are positively associated with spatial ability. For example, children who ran faster scored higher in a test of intrinsic-static spatial ability and children who threw a ball further performed better on a test of extrinsic-static spatial ability (Jansen & Pietsch, 2022). Furthermore, research has found that all four spatial abilities are positively associated with mathematics achievement (Gilligan et al., 2019; Xie et al., 2020). However, there is little research that incorporates all three constructs in one study, with only a few FMS being assessed, extrinsic-dynamic spatial ability not being assessed, or general relationships not being examined.
Therefore, the current study incorporates all three constructs in a single investigation to help clarify the relationships between FMS, spatial ability, and mathematics achievement, and to further understanding of the importance and value of PE in primary schools. Primary PE is often looked upon as a soft subject, with teachers choosing to reallocate PE time to more academic subjects, resulting in less than three quarters of schools participating in two or more hours of PE a week. If participating in PE promotes beneficial effects academically, specifically in mathematics, a valued subject, then high quality delivery of PE in primary schools should become a higher priority.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedParticipants and Procedure
Two hundred and ten Year 3 children from four schools in the UK were recruited. One hundred and eighty children were given parental consent to participate, but only 179 children (mean age: 7.63 years) completed all parts. Eighty-three boys and 96 girls, mostly of White British ethnicity (69.8%), formed the sample. Data collection was conducted, via a cross-sectional correlational design, during the first half of the school year (September to December 2022).
Measures
FMS
FMS were assessed first, using the product-based assessment FUNMOVES (Eddy et al., 2021), during a PE lesson. All children in the class watched the assessor demonstrate the first skill, and five children at a time were assessed on that skill. Once all children completed the skill, the assessor moved on to demonstrating the next skill, and so forth. The skills assessed were running, jumping, hopping, throwing, kicking, and balance.
Spatial Ability
The following week, spatial abilities were assessed. Each child was individually assessed on four spatial abilities (intrinsic-static, intrinsic-dynamic, extrinsic-static, extrinsic-dynamic) in one sitting, taking approximately 30 minutes to complete. To assess intrinsic-static spatial ability, children completed the Children’s Embedded Figures Task (Witkin et al., 1971). The Picture Mental Rotation Task (Neuburger et al., 2011) using animal stimuli and a two-minute time limit was completed to assess intrinsic-dynamic spatial ability. To assess extrinsic-static spatial ability, children completed the Spatial Scaling Task (Gilligan et al., 2018) and the Perspective Taking Task (Frick, 2019) was used to assess extrinsic-dynamic spatial ability.
Mathematics
One week later, once all the children had completed the spatial ability tests, mathematics achievement was assessed. In class, children completed the MaLT7 assessment (Williams, 2005), which assessed numerical, arithmetical, and geometrical ability in line with England’s National Curriculum learning objectives. This test is suitable for children aged 6 to 8.5 years old (Williams, 2005).
Data Analysis
Calculations of means and standard deviations were conducted to examine the descriptive findings. MANOVAs and t-tests were conducted to understand gender differences and Pearson correlations were completed to explore associations between the variables. Mediation analyses in SPSS AMOS were then performed to examine whether spatial ability mediated potential relationships between FMS and mathematics.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsMANOVAs and t-tests revealed that there were gender differences in the scores for running, jumping, and balance, with boys scoring higher than girls in running, and girls scoring higher than boys in jumping and balance. There were no gender differences for the remaining FMS skills, total FMS score, spatial ability, and mathematics scores.
Total FMS ability (a combined score across the six skills) was significantly positively correlated to overall mathematics achievement (p < .001), highlighting that the more developed and mature overall FMS are in children, the better their overall mathematics achievement. This relationship was mediated by spatial ability performance. All four spatial abilities assessed; intrinsic-static, intrinsic-dynamic, extrinsic-static, and extrinsic-dynamic, mediated the relationship between FMS and mathematics (p <. 001, p = .002, p = .002, and p = .022, respectively). These results suggest that children who have more developed FMS, perform better in tests of spatial ability, which in turn results in higher mathematics achievement.
Moderated mediation analyses revealed that intrinsic-static and intrinsic-dynamic spatial abilities mediated the relationship between FMS and mathematics for both girls (p < .006 and p = .003, respectively) and boys (p < .001 and p = .021, respectively). Extrinsic-static spatial ability mediated the relationship between FMS and mathematics in boys (p = .003) but not girls, and extrinsic-dynamic spatial ability mediated the relationship between FMS and mathematics in girls (p = .038) but not in boys.
ReferencesBrown, D. M., & Cairney, J. (2020). The synergistic effect of poor motor coordination, gender and age on self-concept in children: A longitudinal analysis. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 98, Article 103576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103576
de Bruijn, A. G., Kostons, D. D., van der Fels, I. M., Visscher, C., Oosterlaan, J., Hartman, E., & Bosker, R. J. (2019). Importance of aerobic fitness and fundamental motor skills for academic achievement. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 43, 200-209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.02.011
Eddy, L. H., Preston, N., Mon-Williams, M., Bingham, D. D., Atkinson, J. M., Ellingham-Khan, M., . . . Hill, L. J. (2021). Developing and validating a school-based screening tool of Fundamental Movement Skills (FUNMOVES) using Rasch analysis. PLoS ONE, 16(4), Article e0250002. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250002
Frick, A. (2019). Spatial transformation abilities and their relation to later mathematics performance. Psychological Research, 83, 1465-1484. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1008-5
Gallahue, D., & Ozmun, J. (2006). Understanding Motor Development: Infants, Children, Adolescents, Adults (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gilligan, K. A., Flouri, E., & Farran, E. K. (2017). The contribution of spatial ability to mathematics achievement in middle childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 163, 107-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.016
Gilligan, K. A., Hodgkiss, A., Thomas, M. S., & Farran, E. K. (2019). The developmental relations between spatial cognition and mathematics in primary school children. Developmental Science, 22, Article e12786. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12786
Jansen, P., & Pietsch, S. (2022). Sports and mathematical abilities in primary school-aged children: How important are spatial abilities? An explorative study. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01190-5
Neuburger, S., Jansen, P., Heil, M., & Quaiser-Pohl, C. (2011). Gender differences in pre-adolescents' mental rotation performance: Do they depend on grade and stimuli? Personality and Individual Differences, 50(8), 1238-1242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.02.017
Uttal, D. H., Meadow, N. G., Tipton, E., Hand, L. L., Alden, A. R., Warren, C., & Newcombe, N. S. (2013). The Malleability of Spatial Skills: A Meta-Analysis of Training Studies. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 352-402. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028446
Wijsman, L. A., Warrens, M. J., Saab, N., Van Driel, J. H., & Westenberg, P. M. (2016). Declining trends in student performance in lower secondary education. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 31(4), 595-612. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10212-015-0277-2
Williams, J. (2005). Mathematics Assessment for Learning and Teaching. Hodder Education
Witkin, H. A., Otman, P. K., Raskin, E., & Karp, S. (1971). A manual for the embedded figures test. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Xie, F., Zhang, L., Chen, X., & Ziqiang, X. (2020). Is Spatial Ability Related to Mathematical Ability: a Meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 32(4), 113-155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09496-y
24. Mathematics Education Research
Paper
Math Identity Meets Motivation: A Cross-Country Study
Ksenija Krstić1, Jelena Radisic2, Francisco Peixoto3, Aleksandar Baucal1, Stanislaw Schukajlow-Wasjutinski4
1University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Serbia; 2Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo, Norway; 3Centro de Investigação em Educação – ISPA, Portugal; 4Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
Presenting Author: Krstić, Ksenija
The last decades of research in the psychology of education are increasingly marked by an investigation into constructs from the socioemotional domain – academic emotions, motivation, and interaction. One of the concepts that are getting more research attention is related to students' self-understanding about how good they are at a skill-based task or activity in a particular domain (Darragh, 2016; Radovic et al., 2018). As part of the academic identity, these beliefs can significantly influence student achievements, engagement in school activities, as well as choices regarding the field of education, and later professional orientation (Wan et al., 2021). In mathematics education, identity is additionally important in research because it gives a new perspective in explaining why many students underachieve or disengage from mathematics, without referring to their cognitive abilities (Graven & Heyd-Metzuyanim, 2019). Starting from symbolic interactionism and socio-cultural perspective, we define mathematics identity (MI) as a student's self-conception in the domain of mathematics. The concept gathers both student's self-understanding and the perception of how significant others see them in the context of doing mathematics (Anderson, 2007; Martin, 2009). There are several sources that children can use to shape motivational beliefs about their abilities and interests in different academic domains – including social feedback from significant others, such as parents and teachers, objective achievement evaluation, social comparisons, etc. (Wan et al., 2021). On the other hand, MI could be related to students' expectancy when evaluating possible success in particular tasks or activities (Wigfield et al., 2006). Students' self-relevant beliefs about how good they are in certain domains and expectations of success in specific tasks can significantly shape student engagement, persistence, effort, and, ultimately, achievement. Based on the Expectancy-value theory (EVT) students' expectancy for success in a task and value for a task, will serve as important factors for student engagement and learning, thus influencing student's achievement, persistence, and task choice (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020; Pekrun, 2006). Both MI and motivation for learning occur and develop at different ages and have different developmental paces, interacting with mathematics curriculum, teacher's practices, school climate, family's expectations, gender stereotypes, and many more factors, as students progress from grade to grade. In this paper, we focused on motivation for learning math, and exploreed how the identity of students in primary school is related to their motivation for learning mathematics, specifically perceived competence, and task values. Further, we explored the relationship between motivation, achievement, and math identity in the early years of learning mathematics, which can significantly shape later attitudes toward mathematics.
The main aim of this research was to explore the relationship between math identity and dimensions of motivation on one hand and math achievement on the other, in lower grades of compulsory education when students start with math learning. Considering the social nature of MI and its dependence on the cultural context, the additional aim of our research was to explore those relationships in different cultural contexts, that is, in six European countries. Finally, we investigated the potential gender and grade differences in connection to MI.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedParticipants were 11782 primary school students from six countries - 3rd grade (n=5700, 50,8% female, Mage= 9.06 years) and 4th grade students (n=6082, 50.5% female, Mage=10.05 years); from Estonia (n=1694), Finland (n=1772), Norway (n=2135), Portugal (n=2116), Serbia (n=2161) and Sweden (n=1904). Parents' consent forms were obtained for each student. The paper-and-pen questionnaires were administered during regular classes. Four of the five dimensions of the Expectancy-Value Scale (Peixoto et al., 2022), were used to assess students' motivation for mathematics: intrinsic value (e.g., I like doing math), utility (e.g., What I learn in math I can use in daily life), attainment (e.g., Being good in math is very important to me personally), and perceived competence (e.g., Math is easy for me). Each dimension was set on a 4-point Likert scale, from "a lot of times" to "never". The MI scale, measuring how much students believe math is important for their identity, was adapted for this study, comprising 6 items (e.g., I think I am a math person) also anchored at a 4-points scale. Math achievement was measured by a test covering major curricular topics. Math problems comprising the test (12 tasks in grade 3 and 14 tasks in grade 4) were gathered from the previous TIMSS assessment (Approval IEA-22-022). A joint scale of math competence was established across grades due to overlapping items in the grade-specific tests. For each correct answer, students received one point, which resulted in 12 points maximum score for 3rd, and 14 points for 4th grade. We applied the Rasch measurement model to estimate students' math scores, based on all items included in both tests, with 7 items that served as the linking items. Student Math scores are estimated at the scale with an average score of 500 and a standard deviation of 100. To explore the relationship between math achievement, motivation, and identity we tested regression models in MPLUS 8.8, with math identity criterium variable and motivational dimensions, math achievement score, gender, and grade as predictors. Since motivational dimensions were highly correlated, we tested four separate models for each dimension. The model introduced the country as a moderator to identify potential differences among different education systems. The research received ethical approval in each country from the relevant IRB.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsResults revealed that all four models fit the data well. All predictors from EVS were significant for students' math identity in all countries (intrinsic value χ2/df = 8847, RMSEA = .06, CFI = .96, TLI = .96, SRMR = .11; attainment χ2/df = 9805, RMSEA = .07, CFI = .92, TLI = .93, SRMR = .09; utility χ2/df = 6790, RMSEA = .05, CFI = .94, TLI = .95, SRMR = .08; perceived competence χ2/df = 11342, RMSEA = .07, CFI = .92, TLI = .93, SRMR = .11). Nevertheless, in four countries (Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Portugal) boys had significantly more positive math identity compared to girls. No gender differences were captured in Sweden and Serbia. Furthermore, in all countries, Motivational dimensions had a stronger association with MI than math achievement. Generally, among motivational dimensions, interest and perceived competence had the strongest association with students' MI, but there were some specific patterns of relations between motivational dimensions and MI for each country. Regarding the students' grades, results showed that older students perceive themselves less as "math persons" than younger students in all countries, although effect sizes differ. These results contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between identity and motivation in primary school students. Specifically, these results indicate country or, more specifically, its education system is a moderator in the relationship between motivation and identity, which will be further discussed. Further, these results indicate that Grade 4 students tend to have a lower identification with math than Grade 3 students despite their progression in math curriculum and math competence. Taken all together, these results suggest that depending on experience and different educational practices in various educational systems, children have diverse opportunities for the development of math identity. MI development seems to depend on the same factors, with different effects.
ReferencesRadovic, D., Black, L., Williams, J., & Salas, C. E. (2018). Towards conceptual coherence in the research on mathematics learner identity: A systematic review of the literature. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 99(1), 21-42.
Wan, S., Lauermann, F., Bailey, D. H., & Eccles, J. S. (2021). When do students begin to think that one has to be either a "math person" or a "language person"? A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 147(9), 867.
Graven, M., & Heyd-Metzuyanim, E. (2019). Mathematics identity research: The state of the art and future directions. ZDM, 51(3), 361-377.
Peixoto, F., Radišić, J., Krstić, K., Hansen, K. Y., Laine, A., Baucal, A., Sõrmus, M., & Mata, L. (2022). Contribution to the Validation of the Expectancy-Value Scale for Primary School Students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/07342829221144868
Pekrun, R. (2006). The Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions: Assumptions, Corollaries, and Implications for Educational Research and Practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18, 315-341. DOI: 10.1007/s10648-006-9029-9.
Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 109–132. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135153.
Eccles, J. S. & Wigfield, A. (2020). From expectancy-value theory to situated expectancy-value theory: A developmental, social cognitive, and sociocultural perspective on motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101866.
Darragh, L. (2016). Identity research in mathematics education. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 93(1), 19-33.
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