Analyzing Children’s Spatial Reasoning Using an Existing Learning Progression: Insights from Interviews and Task Performance

Spatial reasoning comprises a set of skills used to mentally visualize, orient, and transform objects or spaces. These skills, which develop in humans through interaction with our physical world and direct instruction, are strongly associated with mathematics achievement but are often neglected in early grades mathematics teaching. To conceptualize ways to increase the representation of spatial reasoning skills in the classroom, we examined the outcomes of cognitive interviews with kindergarten through grade two students in which they engaged with one spatial reasoning task. Qualitative analyses of students’ work samples and verbal reasoning responses on a single shape de/composition task revealed evidence of a continuum of sophistication in their responses that supports a previously articulated hypothetical learning progression. Results suggest that teachers may be able to efficiently infer students’ skills in spatial reasoning using a single task and use the results to make instructional decisions that would support students’ mathematical development. The practical implications of this work indicate that additional classroom-based research could support the adoption of such practices that could help teachers efficiently teach spatial reasoning skills through mathematics instruction.