A Study on the Comparison of Geometrical-Mechanical Intelligence Games Activities that are Conducted with Concrete Materials and in Computer Environment

In this study it was aimed to determine the effect of geometrical-mechanical intelligence games activities that are conducted with concrete materials and in computer environment on the spatial visualization and mental rotation skills of prospective teachers and to examine the opinions of prospective teachers about the activities. The research was conducted with mixed-method research. The study group consists of 49 prospective teachers. The obtained quantitative data were collected with “Differential Aptitude Test” and “Mental Rotation Test” and qualitative data were collected with “Open-Ended Questionnaire”. In the analysis of obtained quantitative data, paired samples t-test and one-way analysis of covariance were used and in the analysis of qualitative data, content analysis was used. According to the findings in the research, it was determined that the activities that are conducted both with concrete materials and in computer environment significantly increased the spatial visualization and mental rotation skills of prospective teachers. In addition to this, it was determined that there was not a difference between the increases in the spatial visualization and mental rotation skills of prospective teachers after the activities were conducted. Furthermore, prospective teachers stated that they had fun while performing the activities, the activities developed their visual/spatial intelligence, three-dimensional thinking and establishing a part-whole relationship, increased their attention and concentration and thought and decided faster and more accurate in the second time they were answering the spatial ability tests.

___

  • Alexiou, A., & Schippers, M. C. (2018). Digital game elements, user experience and learning: A conceptual framework. Education and Information Technologies, 23(6), 2545-2567.
  • Arsenault, R., & Ware, C. (2004). The importance of stereo and eye-coupled perspective for eye-hand coordination in fish tank VR. Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, 13(5), 549-559.
  • Atit, K., Power, J. R., Veurink, N., Uttal, D. H., Sorby, S., Panther, G., Msall, C., Fiorella, L., & Carr, M. (2020). Examining the role of spatial skills and mathematics motivation on middle school mathematics achievement. International Journal of STEM Education, 7(1), 1-13.
  • Bennet, G. K., Seashore, H. G., & Wesman, A. G. (1974). Manual for the differential aptitude tests: Forms s and t. New York: The Psychological Corporation.
  • Borriello, G. A., & Liben, L. S. (2017). Encouraging maternal guidance of preschoolers’ spatial thinking during block play. Child Development, 1-14.
  • Bouck, E. C., & Flanagan, S. M. (2010). Virtual manipulatives: What they are and how teachers can use them. Intervention in School and Clinic, 45(3), 186-191.
  • Brosnan, M. J. (1998). Spatial ability in children’s play with Lego blocks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 87, 19-28.
  • Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2011). Data analysis handbook for social science. Turkey: Pegem Academy Publishing.
  • Caldera, Y. M., Mc Culp, A., O'Brien, M., Truglio, R. T., Alvarez, M., & Huston, A. C. (1999). Children's play preferences, construction play with blocks, and visual-spatial skills: Are they related? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 23(4), 855-872.
  • Can, A. (2014). Quantitative data analysis in the process of scientific research with SPSS. Turkey: Pegem Academy Publishing.
  • Creswell J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Boston (MA): Allyn & Bacon.
  • Creswell, J. W., & Plano-Clark, V. L. (2007). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.
  • Delialioğlu, Ö., & Aşkar, P. (1999). Contribution of students’logical thinking ability, mathematical skills and spatial ability on achievement in secondary school physics. Hacettepe University Journal of Education, 16–17, 34–39.
  • Durmuş, S., & Karakirik, E. (2006). Virtual manipulatives in mathematics education: A theoretical framework. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 5(1), 1-7.
  • Freina, L., & Ott, M. (2014). Discussing implementation choices for serious games supporting spatial and orientation skills. ICERI2014 Proceedings (pp. 5182-5191).
  • Gecu‐Parmaksiz, Z., & Delialioglu, O. (2019). Augmented reality‐based virtual manipulatives versus physical manipulatives for teaching geometric shapes to preschool children. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(6), 3376-3390.
  • Gibson, J.J. (1962). Observations on active touch. Psychological Review, 69(6), 477-491.
  • Gilligan, K. (2019). Space for mathematics: Spatial cognition as a contributor to the development of mathematics skills in children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University College London.
  • Gilligan, K. A., Flouri, E., & Farran, E. K. (2017). The contribution of spatial ability to mathematics achievement in middle childhood. Journal of experimental child psychology, 163, 107-125.
  • Grimshaw, G. M., Sitarenios, G., & Finegan, J. A. K. (1995). Mental rotation at 7 years: Relations with prenatal testosterone levels and spatial play experiences. Brain and Cognition, 29(1), 85-100.
  • Ha, O., & Fang, N. (2018). Interactive virtual and physical manipulatives for improving students’ spatial skills. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 55(8), 1088-1110.
  • Jirout, J. J., & Newcombe, N. S. (2015). Building blocks for developing spatial skills: Evidence from a large, representative US sample. Psychological science, 26(3), 302-310.
  • Jung, S., Meinhardt, A., Braeuning, D., Roesch, S., Cornu, V., Pazouki, T., Schiltz, C., Lonnemann, J., & Moeller, K. (2020). Hierarchical development of early visual-spatial abilities–a taxonomy based assessment using the maGrid app. Frontiers in Psychology, 11.
  • Kuhl, P. K., Lim, S. S., Guerriero, S., & van Damme, D. (2019). Shapes, blocks, puzzles and origami: From spatial play to STEM learning. In Developing Minds in the Digital Age.
  • Levine, S. C., Ratliff, K. R., Huttenlocher, J., & Cannon, J. (2011). Early puzzle play: A predictor of preschoolers' spatial transformation skill. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 530.
  • Lin, C. H., & Chen, C. M. (2016). Developing spatial visualization and mental rotation with a digital puzzle game at primary school level. Computers in Human Behavior, 57, 23-30.
  • Linn, M. C., & Petersen, A. C. (1985). Emergence and characterization of gender differences in spatial abilities: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 56, 1479-1498.
  • Liu, X., Huang, H., Yu, K., & Dou, D. (2020). Can video game training improve the two-dimensional mental rotation ability of young children?. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 305-317). Springer, Cham.
  • Lord, T. R., & Rupert, J. L. (1995). Visual-spatial aptitude in elementary education majors in science and math tracks. Journal of Elementary Science Education, 7(2), 47-58.
  • Martin-Dorta, N., Sanchez-Berriel, I., Bravo, M., Hernandez, J., Saorin, J. L., & Contero, M. (2014). Virtual blocks: A serious game for spatial ability improvement on mobile devices. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 73(3), 1575-1595.
  • Martin-Gutierrez, J., Saorin, J. L., Martin-Dorta, N., & Contero, M., (2009). Do video games improve spatial abilities of engineering students? International Journal of Engineering Education, 25(6), 1194-1204.
  • Ministry of National Education [MoNE]. (2013). Intelligence games lesson curriculum for middle school. Ankara, Turkey.
  • Moreau, D. (2013). Differentiating two-from three-dimensional mental rotation training effects. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(7), 1399-1413.
  • Newman, S. D., Hansen, M. T., & Gutierrez, A. (2016). An fMRI study of the impact of block building and board games on spatial ability. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.
  • Okagaki, L., & Frensch, P. A. (1994). Effects of video game playing on measures of spatial performance: Gender effects in late adolescence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15(1), 33-58.
  • Olkun, S. (2003). Comparing computer versus concrete manipulatives in learning 2D geometry. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 22(1), 43-46.
  • Osberg, K. M. (1997). Spatial cognition in the virtual environment. Technical Report-97 18, Seattle: Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington.
  • Patkin, D., Shriki, A., & Barkai, R. (2018). Strategies applied by pre-service elementary school mathematics teachers for coping with tasks that require a mental rotation. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 1-22.
  • Peters, M., Laeng, B., Latham, K., Jackson, M., Zaiyouna, R., & Richardson, C. (1995). A redrawn vandenberg and kuse mental rotations test: Different versions and factors that affect performance. Brain and Cognition, 28, 39-58.
  • Pribyl, J. R., & Bodner, G. M. (1987). Spatial ability and its role in organic chemistry: A study of four organic courses. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 24 (3), 229-240.
  • Reifel, S., & Greenfield, P. M. (1983). Part-whole relations: Some structural features of children's representational block play. Child care quarterly, 12(2), 144-151.
  • Renavitasari, I. R. D., & Supianto, A. A. (2018). Educational game for training spatial ability using tangram puzzle. In 2018 International Conference on Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology (SIET) (pp. 174-179). IEEE.
  • Shamsuddin, N.A.A., & Din, S.C. (2016). Spatial ability skills: A correlation between Augmented Reality (AR) and conventional way on wayfinding system. Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal, 1(2), 159-167.
  • Spencer, K. T. (2008). Preservice elementary teachers’two-dımensional visualization and attitude toward geometry: Influences of manipulative format (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Florida.
  • Thompson, T. (2016). The effects of concrete, virtual, and multimodal tangram manipulatives on second grade elementary students' mathematics achievement and development of spatial sense: A convergent parallel mixed methods study (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Oklahoma State University.
  • Toub, T. S., Verdine, B. N. Golinkoff, R.M. & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2019). Shapes, blocks, puzzles and origami: From spatial play to STEM learning. In Developing Minds in the Digital Age towards a Science of Learning for 21st Century Education, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris (pp.177-186).
  • Uttal, D. H., Meadow, N. G., Tipton, E., Hand, L. L., Alden, A. R., Warren, C., & Newcombe, N. S. (2013). The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies. Psychological bulletin, 139(2), 352.
  • Vandenberg, S.G. & Kuse, A.R. (1978). Mental rotations, a group test of three dimensional spatial visualization. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 47, 599-604.
  • VanMeerten, N., Varma, K., Gravelle, M., Miller, N., Kraikul, E., & Fatemi, F. (2019). Evidence of a relationship between mental rotation skills and performance in a 3D puzzle game. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 4, p. 82). Frontiers.
  • Verhaegh, J., Resing, W. C. M., Jacobs, A. P. A., & Fontijn, W. F. J. (2009). Playing with blocks or with the computer? Solving complex visual-spatial reasoning tasks: Comparing children's performance on tangible and virtual puzzles. Educational and Child Psychology, 26(3), 18.
  • Wang, L., & Carr, M. (2020). Understanding the relationship between spatial ability and mathematics achievement through the lens of information processing theory. North American Journal of Psychology, 22(2), 173-192.
  • Ware, C., & Rose, J. (1999). Rotating virtual objects with real handles. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP), 6, 162–180.
  • Yang, J. C., & Chen, S. Y. (2010). Effects of gender differences and spatial abilities within a digital pentominoes game. Computers ve Education, 55(3), 1220-1233.
  • Yang, W., Liu, H., Chen, N., Xu, P., & Lin, X. (2020). Is early spatial skills training effective? A Meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 11.