5 research outputs found
Construction play frequency and relations with spatial ability and mathematics performance
The nature of the home mathematics environment (which includes numerical and spatial activities at home) is related to children’s spatial and mathematics performance. The current study investigated concrete and digital construction play frequency and relations with spatial and mathematical skills. Participants aged 7 to 9 years (N = 634) reported their frequency of construction play (concrete and digital) and completed direct measures of spatial ability and mathematics performance. Correlations between measures revealed no association between construction play frequency and outcome measures. This suggests that quantity of construction play is not pertinent for spatial and mathematics skills, however future research should explore whether quality of play is an important factor.</p
Construction play frequency and relations with spatial ability and mathematics performance
The nature of the home mathematics environment (which includes numerical and spatial activities at home) is related to children’s spatial and mathematics performance. The current study investigated concrete and digital construction play frequency and relations with spatial and mathematical skills. Participants aged 7 to 9 years (N = 634) reported their frequency of construction play (concrete and digital) and completed direct measures of spatial ability and mathematics performance. Correlations between measures revealed no association between construction play frequency and outcome measures. This suggests that quantity of construction play is not pertinent for spatial and mathematics skills, however future research should explore whether quality of play is an important factor.</p
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Building numeracy skills: associations between DUPLO® block construction and numeracy in early childhood
Research shows that children’s block construction skills are positively associated with their concurrent and later mathematics performance. Furthermore, there is evidence that block construction training is particularly beneficial for improving early mathematics skills in children from low-Socio Economic Status (SES) groups who are known to have lower maths performance than their peers. The current study investigates (a) the association between block construction and mathematics in children just before the start of formal schooling (4 years-of-age in the UK) and (b) whether the association between block construction and mathematics differs between children from more compared to less affluent families. Participants in this study included 116 children (M = 3 years 11 months, SD = 3 months) who all completed numeracy, block construction, and receptive vocabulary tasks. Socio-economic status and demographic information (child age, gender, ethnicity) were also obtained from parents. Findings show a strong positive association between block construction and early numeracy skills. Block construction skills explained approximately 5% of the variation in numeracy, even after controlling for age in months, household income, and child receptive vocabulary. When separated by SES group, for children from less affluent families, block construction explained a significant amount of variability (14.5%) in numeracy performance after covariates. For children from more affluent families, block construction did not explain a significant amount of variation in numeracy. These findings suggest that, interventions involving block construction skills may help to reduce SES-based attainment gaps in UK children’s mathematics achievement
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Teaching open and reproducible scholarship: a critical review of the evidence base for current pedagogical methods and their outcomes
In recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness and reproducibility of research, characterized by increased interest and promotion of open and transparent research practices. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approach can be embedded into undergraduate and postgraduate research training. Specifically, a critical overview of the literature which investigates how integrating open and reproducible science may influence student outcomes is needed. In this paper, we provide the first critical review of literature surrounding the integration of open and reproducible scholarship into teaching and learning and its associated outcomes in students. Our review highlighted how embedding open and reproducible scholarship appears to be associated with (i) students' scientific literacies (i.e. students’ understanding of open research, consumption of science and the development of transferable skills); (ii) student engagement (i.e. motivation and engagement with learning, collaboration and engagement in open research) and (iii) students' attitudes towards science (i.e. trust in science and confidence in research findings). However, our review also identified a need for more robust and rigorous methods within pedagogical research, including more interventional and experimental evaluations of teaching practice. We discuss implications for teaching and learning scholarship
Teaching open and reproducible scholarship: a critical review of the evidence base for current pedagogical methods and their outcomes
In recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness and reproducibility of research, characterized by increased interest and promotion of open and transparent research practices. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approach can be embedded into undergraduate and postgraduate research training. Specifically, a critical overview of the literature which investigates how integrating open and reproducible science may influence student outcomes is needed. In this paper, we provide the first critical review of literature surrounding the integration of open and reproducible scholarship into teaching and learning and its associated outcomes in students. Our review highlighted how embedding open and reproducible scholarship appears to be associated with (i) students' scientific literacies (i.e. students’ understanding of open research, consumption of science and the development of transferable skills); (ii) student engagement (i.e. motivation and engagement with learning, collaboration and engagement in open research) and (iii) students' attitudes towards science (i.e. trust in science and confidence in research findings). However, our review also identified a need for more robust and rigorous methods within pedagogical research, including more interventional and experimental evaluations of teaching practice. We discuss implications for teaching and learning scholarship.</p