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http://dx.doi.org/10.7468/jksmec.2013.16.3.303

Spatial Ability and Mathematical Achievement of Elementary School Students  

Park, Sungsun (Chuncheon National University of Education)
Publication Information
Education of Primary School Mathematics / v.16, no.3, 2013 , pp. 303-313 More about this Journal
Abstract
Spatial ability has been valued as one component of intelligence and associated with the achievements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and important in STEM education. The purpose of this study is to assess elementary school students' spatial ability and analyze the relationship with mathematical achievement, gender and grade level. This study explored the spatial visualization ability of 1288 elementary school students (grade 4-6) in Seoul and Gangwon province and investigated association between spatial ability and students' mathematics achievement, the students' spatial ability according to their gender and grade level. As a result, this study showed that there were significant correlations between spatial ability and mathematical achievement. And also, boy students were better than girl students in spatial ability and higher grader were better than lower graders in spatial ability. According to these results, spatial ability should be included as one of the important components in identifying students for gifted education programs. Furthermore, more research is needed on how to effectively structure educational opportunities to students both who have high spatial ability and have low spatial ability.
Keywords
spatial ability; spatial visualization; 3-D mental rotation; mathematical achievement;
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