Spatial ability has been the subject of mathematics education research because of the implications it has in the areas of problem solving, student cognition, and success in learning mathematics. This study investigated two questions related to student spatial ability: (1) What are the differences in reasoning between students with high spatial abilities and those with low spatial abilities, and what differences in these reasoning processes can be inferred using student interactions with a three-dimensional computer graphics program? (2) What are the differences in spatial strategies of the students as they engage in the three-dimensional graphing activities? / The subjects were third year college students in a teacher education program, and were enrolled in a mathematics teacher education course at the time. They were observed during lessons in three-dimensional graphing using a program, named Jellyfish Logo, which was created by myself. They attempted tasks such as representation of a rectangular solid, a tetrahedron, and a triangular prism. In addition to these representations they completed a series of lessons designed to test both their spatial and their problem solving abilities. These lessons included area and volume estimations and the location of both two- and three-dimensional objects in space. / There were several observable results from this study. One of these was that there is, in an environment such as this, a forced integration of verbal/symbolic and graphic representations. It was necessary for the subject to have verbal/symbolic skills in order to construct the desired graphic representations. Another result of this study is that there is a direct relationship between the amount of anticipation/reflection and student success in completing a task. The results of this study indicate that it is imperative that educators emphasize the importance of anticipation and reflection in problem solving. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0747. / Major Professor: Janice Flake. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76590 |
| Contributors | King, George M., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 231 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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