Measuring and Improving Children's Intuitive Geometrical Understanding

Measuring and Improving Children's Intuitive Geometrical Understanding
Measuring and Improving Children's Intuitive Geometrical Understanding

This project explores children's understanding of the geometrical concepts necessary to reason about how the shape of a triangle will change when changes are made to the distance between, or the measure of, the bottom two angles. Past research has shown that children struggle to master these concepts throughout the elementary school years. This project explores the nature of this difficulty and possible underlying causes for the difficulty by examining children's spoken and gestured explanations of their own answers, as well as the impact of providing explanations on their overall patterns of responding. The goal of this project is to characterize children's understanding of the triangle completion task and to develop an intervention that will test possible mechanisms by which it can be overcome.

Associated Research Thrust(s): 

Principal Investigators: 
Postdoctoral Associates and Fellows: