Proceedings of the Forty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education: Changing Mathematics Education by Educating for Change

Research on mathematical cognition has shown mathematical reasoning is embodied and tied<br/>to perception, action, spatial systems, and physical motions (Nathan, 2021). A cognitive resource<br/>associated with mathematical thinking is spatial reasoning (Atit et al., 2021), which is rooted in<br/>embodied experiences with space (Tversky, 2008). Embodied interaction-based interventions,<br/>particularly those utilizing motion-tracking technologies and tangible interaction, are powerful<br/>for enhancing spatial abilities (Gittinger &amp; Wiesche, 2023; Lee-Cultura &amp; Giannakos, 2020) and<br/>related mathematical understanding (Daughrity et al., 2024). However, few investigations<br/>explore how these interventions may impact mathematical reasoning. This pilot examines how<br/>embodied and immersive spatial experiences in virtual reality (VR) can impact students’ spatial<br/>and mathematical skills. The central research question is: How does a VR Tangram puzzle<br/>experience impact students’ performance on spatial and mathematics assessments?<br/>Nineteen high school students from a metropolitan area in the Southwestern US<br/>participated in this pilot study as part of a one-day summer camp (68% male, age = 14.7).<br/>First, participants completed a series of demographic and pretest measures, including the MakeA-Dice spatial ability test (Burte et al., 2019) and a four-item math assessment with questions<br/>about computing the area of composite shapes. Next, they used VR headsets to play VR<br/>Tangrams, in which students complete a series of Tangram puzzles. After 20 minutes,<br/>participants completed a posttest version of spatial and math assessment. Scores on the Make-ADice were summed with 1-point given for each correctly identified side. Math assessments were<br/>scored with 1-point for providing the correct answer, 1-point for demonstrating a correct math<br/>process (but may have calculation errors), and 1 point for demonstrating a correct strategy.<br/>Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for matched samples were used to analyze differences in spatial<br/>and math pre- and posttest scores. To prevent cases of zero differences, we removed cases with<br/>the same pre- and posttest scores. No significant differences were found for spatial scores (n =<br/>13). Posttest total math assessments scores (n =17) were significantly higher. Math subscores<br/>demonstrating a correct mathematical process and a decomposing strategy (n=19) were<br/>significantly higher after the VR experience. Results with this small sample suggest embodied<br/>spatial puzzle experience may have led students to use more appropriate strategies (e.g.,<br/>decomposing) and correct mathematical processes. Embodied actions and mental processes<br/>needed to complete Tangram puzzles may activate spatio-motoric systems, which allowed for<br/>transfer to math tasks (Rahaman et al., 2018; Schenck, 2024). Transfer of spatial processes may<br/>be enhanced due to the close connection between the skills needed in Tangram puzzles and<br/>composite area problems (Hawes et al., 2022). This work demonstrates possibility that embodied<br/>spatial experiences using immersive technology may benefit students’ mathematical thinking.