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Middle Grade Students' Interpretations of Contour Maps
Author(s) -
Carter Glenda,
Cook Michelle,
Park John C.,
Wiebe Eric N.,
Butler Susan M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.2008.tb17806.x
Subject(s) - spatial ability , mathematics education , salient , interpretation (philosophy) , task (project management) , rank (graph theory) , likert scale , psychology , test (biology) , cognitive psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , cognition , mathematics , developmental psychology , paleontology , management , combinatorics , neuroscience , economics , biology , programming language
This study examined eighth graders' approach to three tasks implemented to assist students with learning to interpret contour maps. Students' approach to and interpretation of these three tasks were analyzed qualitatively. When students were rank ordered according to their scores on a standardized test of spatial ability, the Minnesota Paper Form Board Task (Likert & Quasha, 1948), evidence emerged that spatial ability was related to how students interpreted the tasks. Students with the relatively lowest spatial ability scores had difficulty picking out the relevant features of the representations used for instruction and despite scaffolding attempts by peers remained unclear about their interpretation. Students with relatively higher spatial ability were able to pick out salient features of the representations used for instruction which resulted in their learning to read and interpret contour maps.