Shi Licheng, Dong Linwei, Zhao Weikun, Tan Dingliang
School of Education Science, Nantong University, Nantong, China.
Jiangsu Institute of Education Sciences, Nanjing, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Mar 7;14:1126047. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1126047. eCollection 2023.
Hands-on learning is proposed as a prerequisite for mathematics learning in kindergarten and primary school. However, it remains unclear that whether hands-on experience aids understanding of geometry knowledge for middle school students. We also know little about the neural basis underlying the value of hands-on experience in math education. In this study, 40 right-handed Chinese students (20 boys and 20 girls) with different academic levels were selected from 126 seventh-grade students in the same school, who learnt "Axisymmetric of an Isosceles Triangle" in different learning style (hands-on operation vs. video observation). Half of them operated the concrete manipulatives while the other half watched the instructional videos. The learning-test paradigm and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technique were used to compare the differences in geometry reasoning involved in solving well-structured problems and ill-structured problems. Behavioral results showed that hands-on experience promoted students' performances of geometry problem-solving. Students with lower academic level were more dependent on hands-on experience than those with higher academic level. The fNIRS results showed that meaningful hands-on experience with concrete manipulatives related to learning contents increased reactivation of the somatosensory association cortex during subsequent reasoning, which helped to improve the problem-solving performance. Hands-on experience also reduced students' cognitive load during the well-structured problem-solving process. These findings contribute to better understand the value of hands-on experience in geometry learning and the implications for future mathematics classroom practices.
实践学习被认为是幼儿园和小学阶段数学学习的先决条件。然而，实践经验是否有助于中学生理解几何知识仍不明确。我们对数学教育中实践经验价值背后的神经基础也知之甚少。在本研究中，从同一所学校的126名七年级学生中挑选了40名具有不同学业水平的右利手中国学生（20名男生和20名女生），他们以不同的学习方式（实践操作与视频观察）学习“等腰三角形的轴对称”。其中一半学生操作具体的教具，另一半学生观看教学视频。采用学习-测试范式和功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）技术，比较解决结构良好问题和结构不良问题时几何推理的差异。行为结果表明，实践经验促进了学生解决几何问题的表现。学业水平较低的学生比学业水平较高的学生更依赖实践经验。fNIRS结果表明，与学习内容相关的使用具体教具的有意义实践经验在后续推理过程中增加了体感联合皮层的再激活，这有助于提高问题解决表现。实践经验还降低了学生在解决结构良好问题过程中的认知负荷。这些发现有助于更好地理解实践经验在几何学习中的价值以及对未来数学课堂实践的启示。
