Project description
A closer look at the spatial-maths connection
In the realm of education, mastering mathematics has long been a formidable challenge, with many students struggling from the outset of their schooling. This issue persists, despite growing societal demands for mathematical proficiency in an era of scientific and industrial advancement. Recent research has identified spatial skills as potentially pivotal to mathematical development, yet understanding their role remains elusive. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the SPATHS project will uncover causal relationships between spatial abilities and mathematical prowess. Specifically, it will use directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), traditionally from computer science, but novel to cognitive psychology. SPATHS paves the way for targeted educational interventions and more effective spatial training programmes.
Objective
Difficulties in learning maths usually begin at the start of education and are robust over time. The number of students not reaching basic levels of maths achievement remains a major societal challenge, at a time when societies are increasingly demanding maths skills due to scientific and industrial progress. Research examining the key cognitive foundations for successful maths learning has identified spatial skills as a promising potential contributor to maths development. Nevertheless, how and why SPatial skills contribute to mATHS learning remains elusive. SPATHS will therefore develop a new framework that aim to understand the causal mechanisms via which spatial skills impact maths learning. This will be done firstly by using graphical causal models, in particular Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG), to draw causal inferences from observational data. This technique, originally developed for computer science and novel to cognitive and developmental psychology, is a way of visually representing and testing a priori causal assumptions. Various spatial skills and maths abilities will be tested and causal pathways between the different abilities will be estimated in a cross-cultural context, which varies in the extent to which children start formal school (start at 5 vs. start at 6 years) and allows us to generalise findings across different educational contexts. Second, to empirically validate the findings from the causal models, a training experiment will manipulate the learning of spatial skills in 5-and 6-year-olds. SPATHS will unravel long-awaited knowledge about the mechanism underlying the spatial-maths association. This is essential for future research into efficient interventions to improve maths and to make spatial training programs more effective. Moreover, by introducing DAGs to cognitive and developmental psychology, SPATHS will provide the possibility to test causality in natural environments (e.g. schools) in which experimental data are difficult to obtain.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
3000 Leuven
Belgium