Adding up fine motor skills: developmental relations between manual dexterity and numerical abilities

We explore the relationship between mathematical skills and motor skills across three age groups of normally developing children. The existence of such a relationship is postulated in classical accounts of human development. In contemporary research, the existence of a relationship between motor development and the development of abstract concepts may form a crucial piece of evidence for theories of embodied cognition. Existing studies suggest a link between fine motor skills and various numerical and mathematical tasks in young children; however, there are few attempts to measure the strength of this relationship across different ages. We use a cross-sectional design to investigate the link between fine motor and mathematical skills in children in Kindergarten, 2nd grade, and 4th grade. The results show that correlational patterns vary in the three ages; while in Kindergarten manual dexterity of the dominant hand is related to math skills, in 2nd grade the manual dexterity of the nondominant hand is related to math skills, and finally, in 4th grade no such correlations are observable.

The Game of Game-Based Learning

Games have been an inevitable part of education since the beginning. They have indescribably transformed the educational landscape with a higher emphasis on the learner-centric pedagogy. The educational games can be considered to be a contemporary manifestation of these centuries' old philosophies and practices aimed at imparting strategic and tactical thinking, language, logic, and mathematical skills amongst the learners. This chapter explores the meaning, significance, and scope of game-based learning as an instructional tool. It provides an interesting account of several games that are popularly used to facilitate effective learning in various settings. This chapter also examines the relevance and implications of games in education.

Let’s do the Math… About Creativity and Mathematical Reasoning: A Correlational Study in Primary School Children

Mathematics, being a very ancient discipline, is usually seen as a formal subject that must be learned for school purposes, which is very far from creativity and fun. Also, mathematical skills are often considered a talent, so students are easily divided into gifted and not gifted, with a focus on speed and accuracy rather than encouraging the process of juggling between divergent and convergent thinking. In the present paper, we aimed at investigating the relationship between mathematical reasoning and different aspects of creative thinking, such as divergent and convergent creativity, aesthetic appreciation, and humor. To do so, 146 second and third graders in a primary school in Milan have been recruited and tested with mathematical and creative tasks. Correlational analyses showed significant positive relations between flexibility and originality dimensions of creativity and mathematical performance. Results are discussed by providing a theoretical framework about the relation between mathematics and creative skills.

Acquisition of Mathematical and Linguistic Skills in Children With Learning Difficulties

Comorbid learning difficulties in linguistic and mathematical skills often emerge in primary school age. The cause of coinciding of both learning difficulties during children’s development spanning pre- and primary-school age is not yet well understood. To address this research gap, we used data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; n = 301) of four groups of children which were categorized according to their skill levels in pre-school age: children with learning difficulties isolated in linguistic skills (LD), children with learning difficulties isolated in mathematical skills (MD), children with learning difficulties combined in linguistic and mathematical skills (MD/LD), and children with typical development in both skills (TA). Computing univariate and repeated measures ANCOVAs we compared the mathematical and linguistic development of the four groups of children (LD, MD, LD/MD, and TA) spanning age four to ten. Results reveal a partial catch-up in linguistic skills (lexical, grammatical) for children with LD. In contrast, children with MD did not overcome their mathematical competence gap in comparison with TA and LD. Moreover, children with MD showed a decrease in grammatical skills during transition in primary school. Further, children with MD/LD displayed the weakest performance in linguistic and mathematical skills during pre- and primary-school age in general. However, after controlling for working memory, initial performance differences between the groups decreased in favor of MD/LD. The relation between linguistic skills and mathematical skills in persisting learning difficulties as well as the specific role of working memory are discussed.

Practice-oriented tasks as a means of teaching mathematics to cadets of fire-technical specialties

The article is devoted to the problem of mathematical training of future fire safety engineers. In the process of training, cadets should have developed mathematical thinking, focused on the problems of civil protection. The basis for the formation of such thinking is the implementation of practice-oriented teaching of mathematics. Practice-oriented mathematical problems are an effective teaching tool. In the process of training specialists in fire-technical specialties, such tasks ensure the assimilation of mathematical concepts in the context of their interpretation in the professional field of activity of rescue engineers; creation of the mathematical basis necessary for studying the disciplines of the professional training cycle; development of the skill of constructing mathematical models of processes and phenomena in the field of protection of the population and territories. In this work, the author's definition of a practice-oriented mathematical problem is given, reflecting the real conditions of the service activities of specialists of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Requirements for the content of such tasks for cadets of fire-technical specialties are formulated. A classification of practice-oriented tasks is proposed, taking into account the specifics of the future service activities of fire and technosphere safety engineers. Mathematical skills and abilities are indicated, the formation of which presents each type of problem, the corresponding practice-oriented mathematical skills necessary in the practical activities of civil protection specialists. Examples of tasks of all considered types are given.

Sustainable Development Indicators—Untapped Tools for Sustainability and STEM Education: An Analysis of a Popular Czech Educational Website

Environmental education has been included in Czech curricula since the 1980s, albeit without clear evidence of education for sustainable development (SD), which addresses complex socio-economic issues using SD indicators (SDIs), such as charts, single numbers, tables, maps, and (interactive) images. However, understanding such a comprehensive topic requires developing basic mathematical knowledge and skills. In this study, we aimed to analyse the nature, quality, and availability of teaching materials for SD, primarily using SDIs, which could be applied by Czech teachers. For this purpose, we performed a qualitative and basic quantitative content analysis of several descriptors of documents retrieved from a website for teachers, provided by the National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic. A full-text search identified 1376 records, which were analyzed for SD pillars and SDIs. Our results showed that most records (95%) do not contain SDIs in teaching materials. Only 59 records mentioned (128) SDIs, mostly covering the environmental pillar, 26 of which contain a single SDI. The most frequent issues were waste production, treatment, savings, water parameters, and energy consumption. Mathematical skills were used in 56 SDIs, primarily for evaluating data sets and quantitative expressions of an amount. Overall, only a small number of SDIs are used in education for SD, economic and social SDIs are in the minority, and the STEM potential remains untapped.

Theory of spacetime impetus

This article introduces the theory of spacetime impetus (SI). The theory unites Newtonian theory (NT) and the theory of general relativity (GR). To develop SI, we reformulated NT in spacetime and replaced the particle primitive in NT with the fragment of energy primitive in field theory. SI replaces Newton’s second law F = ma governing the motion of particles, where F, m, and a are, respectively, interaction force, mass, and acceleration, with the change equation P = k governing the motion of fragments of energy, where P and k are, respectively, action force and the curvature of a path in spacetime. To verify SI, we conducted three tests: Test 1 predicted the precession angles of Mercury and Jupiter, test 2 predicted the bending angle of light as it grazes the surface of the sun, and test 3 predicted the radius of the photon sphere. All three tests were in agreement with GR, the third corresponding to strong Riemannian curvature in GR. The equations of motion in SI are in terms of Cartesian coordinates and time and are relatively simple to solve. Undergraduate students in science and engineering and others with similar mathematical skills can validate the results for themselves.

Effective Teacher Professional Development Programs. A Case Study Focusing on the Development of Mathematical Modeling Skills

A concern in Mathematics Education is the professional development of the teacher and to promote effective training programs. The literature provides principles guiding the design of such programs, which were considered for an instruction intended to strengthen the teacher’s practice in relation to the development of mathematical skills. The objective of this work was to study if the designed program was effective, in relation to the impact on the teacher’s teaching. A case study on a group of in-service teachers focused on the ability of mathematical modeling (MM) and their perspectives of this skill was carried out. This was divided into three moments: before, during, and after the program. The findings show that, before the program, teachers conceived modeling from epistemological, pragmatic and conceptual perspectives; during the program, they focused on the pragmatic and educational perspectives; and at the end of the program, the group was stripped of the pragmatic, epistemological and conceptual perspectives to move towards the educational and socio-critical. They were also able to justify the choice or disassociation of one or more of them. The study advances towards the concretion of more specific and robust professional development programs for mathematics teachers.