The problem of this study was to determine if spatial perception could be a predictor of success in higher mathematics. This study first showed correlations of the results of three spatial perception tests taken by high-school students with their final geometry grades. Structure of the Intellect-Learning Ability subtests CFS (cognition of figural systems) and CFT (cognition of figural transformations), as well as Differential Aptitude Tests-Space Relations subtest, were used. Correlations were then computed for high-school geometery grades with calculus I grades. Geometry thus was used as a bridge between spatial perception and calculus performance. Secondly, the investigator explored any difference in performance by the sexes in all of the variables. Of the 10 hypotheses tested, the first four suspected similarities. Pearson product-moment was utilized to test these. The remaining six hypotheses tested for differences between the sexes through use of t-tests for independent groups. Multiple regression analysis was employed to determine the combination of variables which correlated significantly with final geometry grades, then with calculus. The five intact geometry classes at Tennessee High School, Bristol, Tennessee, were given the CFS and CFT tests, consisting of 26 problems each. Differential Aptitude Tests-Space Relations results were obtained from the student's permanent records. Out of an enrollment of 135, 112 students were present for testing. Of the 112, there were 51 males and 61 females. The testing date was April 26, 1984. The college data were obtained entirely from the permanent records at King College. All students who had taken calculus I over the last five years comprised a population of 179. Of this number 104 were male and 75 were female. Analysis of each predictor variable with high-school geometry grades showed a significant correlation (at (alpha) = .05) for CFS, CFT and Differential Aptitude Tests. CFS and Differential Aptitude Tests had strong correlations. Pearson product-moment showed a low, but significant correlation between CFT and the geometry grades. The Spearman Rho test, however concluded that this correlation was not significant. Analysis showed a strong positive correlation between high-school geometry grades and performance in calculus I. The combination of these two analyses would indicate that the two-dimensional spatial perception test is a good predictor of success in calculus I. There was no significant difference between the scores of males and females in any of the areas tested (CFS, CFT, Differential Aptitude Tests, geometry, calculus). However, the calculus I grades of those students who had had no previous college math courses were significantly better than those who had had one, two, or three courses.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to measure and analyse the relationships between the expressed attitudes toward mathematics of selected seventh grade students, their parents, and their former elementary school teachers and to relate these attitudes to student achievement In mathematics in elementary school. (Abstract shortened.)

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<p>The focus of this project is the development of a unit of study in Science for junior students (ages 9-11), in the Elementary School and the assessment of its implementation. The actual participants in the programme were students at the grade five level.</p> <p>There are two areas of student learning that have been identified as significant in science education: the cognitive-process skills, and the communicative skills. Through application and assessment of the proposed programme, "Junior Science For General Education", it was discovered that active "hands-on" participation resulted in an increased capacity for problem solving.</p> / Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)

It is the purpose of this work to evaluate the possible contribution that a semiotic perspective could make to mathematics education and mathematics. This emphasis of this work is on the development of a semiotic perspective, emerging from the work of C. S Peirce and L. Vygotsky, that embodies both the philosophical and psychological notions of the role of the sign. This perspective, termed Developmental Semiotics, evolves through the interplay of the theoretical and empirical aspects of this work. Developmental semiotics is applied in the form of a prototype as an empirical tool to two case studies, one concerning algebra and one concerning co-ordinate representations. The results of these studies serve to inform the evolution of the perspective and provide some conclusions specific to the case studies arising from this way of viewing learning in these contexts. The perspective is refined in the light of the studies and a further case study is carried out, this time in the area of the history of mathematics (the development of Boolean algebra), with the purpose of evaluating the final form of the framework and informing on mathematical development, creativity and motivation. Developmental semiotics has implications at two levels, on the macro semiotic level it brings forward the emphasis on the role of the sign in mathematical meaning-making, it rejects the traditional subject-object dichotomy and through semiotic action accounts for the relativity in mathematical meanings. At the micro semiotic level it describes mathematical development in terms of progressive meaning making instances for increasingly opaque signs and gives specific information about the meanings made by mathematics learners in specific contexts. In some instances it has enabled the identification of meanings that may be useful for mathematical progression. This work hopes to contribute to mathematics education by bringing to the fore the discipline of semiotics through emphasis on the role of the sign as a meaning giving entity, and through provision of a framework and empirical toolkit for the semiotic analysis of specific learning contexts. Furthermore it may also contribute to both mathematics, by exposing the history of mathematics to a semiotic analysis, and to semiotics itself by providing a further context for the application of this cross disciplinary point of view.

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