Texas A&M University, Psychological and Brain Sciences, 4235 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
Department of Psychology, Tufts University, 490 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA, 02155, USA.
Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2020 Apr 16;5(1):17. doi: 10.1186/s41235-020-00221-w.
Considering how spatial thinking connects to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) outcomes, recent studies have evaluated how spatial interventions impact elementary students' math learning. While promising, these interventions tend to overlook other factors affecting math learning; perceptions of math abilities, beliefs about math, and math anxiety can also impact math performance. Additionally, perceptions of spatial skill and spatial anxiety impact spatial performance. This study investigated how elementary teachers' perceptions of spatial thinking connects with math perceptions. Specifically, we focused on teachers' attitudes and beliefs around three topics: teaching and learning math, spatial abilities, and spatial thinking in mathematics. We found that lower spatial anxiety related to lower anxiety about teaching math, greater alignment between math beliefs and math standards, and greater efficacy in teaching and learning math. Further, a factor analysis showed one factor that connected stereotypical math thinking with both math and spatial anxiety, and another that connected spatial competencies, teaching and learning math, and spatial thinking within math. To further evaluate spatial thinking in math, we introduced a math categorization and verified it using teachers' ratings of teaching difficulty, visualization helpfulness, and spatial-thinking involvement. Structural equation models revealed that the level of spatial-thinking categorization was the best model of all three of the teachers' ratings. Overall, results showed numerous connections between teachers' attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and spatial thinking. Future intervention studies should consider teachers who are spatial and/or math-anxious, and future research should investigate the role of stereotypical thinking in spatial and math anxiety.
考虑到空间思维与科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）成果的联系，最近的研究评估了空间干预如何影响小学生的数学学习。虽然这些干预措施很有前景，但它们往往忽略了影响数学学习的其他因素；对数学能力的看法、对数学的信念和数学焦虑也会影响数学表现。此外，空间技能和空间焦虑的感知会影响空间表现。本研究调查了小学教师对空间思维的看法如何与数学感知相关。具体来说，我们专注于教师在三个主题上的态度和信念：教授和学习数学、空间能力和数学中的空间思维。我们发现，较低的空间焦虑与对教授数学的较低焦虑、对数学信念和数学标准的更大一致性以及在教授和学习数学方面的更大效能相关。此外，因子分析表明，一个因素将典型的数学思维与数学和空间焦虑联系起来，另一个因素将空间能力、教授和学习数学以及数学中的空间思维联系起来。为了进一步评估数学中的空间思维，我们引入了一种数学分类，并使用教师对教学难度、可视化有用性和空间思维参与度的评分对其进行了验证。结构方程模型显示，空间思维分类的水平是所有三个教师评分中最佳的模型。总的来说，结果表明教师对数学和空间思维的态度和信念之间存在许多联系。未来的干预研究应该考虑空间和/或数学焦虑的教师，未来的研究应该调查刻板思维在空间和数学焦虑中的作用。
