FIRST PHASE OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF A SPATIAL THINKING ASSESS INSTRUMENT FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13845833

Keywords:

Spatial thinking, Early childhood education, Test construction, Content validation

Abstract

Spatial reasoning is a set of skills mobilized in different areas of human activity and whose importance in educational curricula, since kindergarten, has been growing during the past decades. This article details the construction and validation process of an instrument which purpose is to analyse the spatial skills of children between 4 and 6 years old. The development of that instrument was led by pedagogical and ethical principles that guide early childhood education. Thus, we defined a set of playful and manipulative challenges, covering different aspects of spatial thinking: topological concepts, laterality, representation of space in a square grid, perspectives, itineraries and maps. For the content validation process, a panel of six experts with training and professional activity linked to kindergarten education, educational technologies and/or mathematics teaching was selected. A content validation form was created to verify the adequacy of each test item, considering i) the concepts to be evaluated; ii) children’s ages and iii) the help provided for its execution. The contribution of the content validation process to the ongoing investigation is considered essential, because it led to some changes on the test content. It also promoted reflection on some contextual and relational aspects to be taken into account when carrying it out, with the aim of improving test’s adequacy to its purpose and ensure an affectively safe environment for children.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Lígia Gonçalves Nogueira, Doutoranda em Educação pela Universidade de Santiago de Compostela - Espanha

Mestra em Educação pelo Instituto Politécnico do Porto. Professora no Instituto Politécnico do Porto.

Teresa Fernández Blanco, Professora na Universidad de Santiago de Compostela - Espanha

Doutora em Educação pela Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Cláudia Manuela Ferreira Maia Lima, Professora no Instituto Politécnico do Porto - Portugal

Doutora em Educação pela Universidade Portucalense

References

ALEXANDRE, N. M. C.; COLUCI, M. Z. O. Validade de conteúdo nos processos de construção e adaptação de instrumentos de medidas. Ciencia e Saude Coletiva, v.16, n.7, p.3061–3068, 2011. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-81232011000800006

ALSINA, A. Procesos matemáticos en Educación Infantil: 50 ideas clave. Números. Revista de Didáctica de Las Matemáticas, v.86, n.julio, p.5–28, 2014.

ANTÓN SANCHO, Á.; GÓMEZ ALONSO, M. La Geometría a través del Arte en Educación Infantil. Enseñanza & Teaching, v.34, n.1, p.93–117, 2016. Disponível em: https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.14201/et201634193117

ARIAS, A.; SIRECI, S. Validez y Validación para Pruebas Educativas y Psicológicas: Teoría y Recomendaciones. Revista Iberoamericana de Psicología, v.14, n.1, p.11–22, 2021. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.33881/2027-1786.rip.14102

BRAININ, E.; SHAMIR, A.; EDEN, S. Robot programming intervention for promoting spatial relations, mental rotation and visual memory of kindergarten children. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, v.54, n.3, p.345–358, 2022. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2020.1858464

CLEMENTS, D. H.; SARAMA, J. Learning and teaching early math: The learning trajectories approach. New York: Routledge, 2009.

DAVIS, B.; GROUP, S. R. S. Spatial Reasoning in the Early Years: Principles, Assertions, and Speculations. New York: Routledge, 2015.

FRANCIS, K.; WHITELEY, W. Interactions between three dimensions and two dimensions. In: DAVIS, B.; GROUP, S. R. S. (Org.). Spatial reasoning in the early years: Principles, assertions, and speculations. New York: Routledge, 2015. p.131-146.

FRIEBROON-YESHARIM, M.; BEN-ARI, M. Teaching Computer Science Concepts Through Robotics to Elementary School Children. International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools, v.2, n.3, p.1-22, 2018. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.21585/ijcses.v2i3.30

GONZATO, M.; BLANCO, T. F.; GODINO, J. D. Tareas para el desarrollo de habilidades de visualización y orientación espacial. Números, v.77, n.julio, p.99-117, 2011.

JIMÉNEZ-GESTAL, C.; BERCIANO, A.; SALGADO, M. Cómo trabajar la orientación espacial de modo significativo en Educación Infantil: implicaciones didácticas. Educación Matemática, v.31, n.2, p.61–74, 2019. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.24844/EM3102.03

JOB, X. E.; KIRSCH, L. Y.; AUVRAY, M. Spatial perspective-taking: insights from sensory impairments. Experimental brain research, v.240, p.27-37, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06221-6

AGY-KONDOR, R. Spatial ability: Measurement and development. In: KHINE M. S. (Org.). Visual-spatial ability in STEM Education: Transforming Research into Practice. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017. p.35-58. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44385-0_3

NCTM. Princípios e normas para a matemática escolar. Lisboa: Associação de Professores de Matemática, 2007.

ORTIZ-ROCHA, Y. A.; SANDOVAL-CÁCERES, I. Y.; SACRISTÁN-ROCK, A. I. Construcción de sistemas de referencia espaciales en edades tempranas: reconocimiento de macroespacios. In: BLANCO, T. F. et al. (Org.). Investigación en Educación Matemática XXV. Santiago de Compostela: SEIEM, 2022. p.441-449.

PORTUGAL, G.; LAEVERS, F. Avaliação em Educação Pré-Escolar - Sistema de Acompanhamento das Crianças (2a ed.). Porto: Porto Editora, 2018.

SILVA et al. Orientações curriculares para a Educação Pré-Escolar. Lisboa: Direção-Geral da Educação - Ministério da Educação, 2016.

TORRES, N. B.; GONZÁLEZ, R. L.; CARVALHO, J. L. Roamer, un robot en el aula de Educación Infantil para el desarrollo de nociones espaciales básicas. RISTI - Revista Ibérica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informação, v.28, p.14–28, 2018. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.17013/risti.28.14-28

ZANDER, S.; WETZEL, S.; BERTEL, S. Rotate it! – Effects of touch-based gestures on elementary school students’ solving of mental rotation tasks. Computers & Education, v.103, n.december, p.158–169, 2016.

Published

2023-06-05

How to Cite

NOGUEIRA, L. G.; BLANCO, T. F.; LIMA, C. M. F. M. FIRST PHASE OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF A SPATIAL THINKING ASSESS INSTRUMENT FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN. Cenas Educacionais, [S. l.], v. 6, p. e16032, 2023. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13845833. Disponível em: https://revistas.uneb.br/index.php/cenaseducacionais/article/view/16032. Acesso em: 21 nov. 2024.

Issue

Section

Thematic Dossier - TEACHING GEOGRAPHY: GEOGRAPHICAL THINKING AND THE VISIBILITY OF