Mathematics achievement is core to South Africa's readiness for digital innovation, yet current pass rates in this subject are below the global average. Simply attributing mathematics performance to intelligence does not fully account for the multifaceted reality of achievement in the subject. The current study investigated the value of both…

The relationships between visuo-spatial abilities and geometry performances in school-aged children were examined. A battery of tests assessing non-verbal reasoning, visuo-spatial mental imagery, and academic achievement in geometry (i.e., geometric knowledge and geometric problem-solving competencies) was presented to 162 8-9.5-year-old pupils…

The objective of this study was to examine in what ways and to what extent preschoolers (5-6 years of age) manifest early Engineering Habits of Mind (EHoM) while engaging in an open-ended problem-solving construction task. The study comprised 228 children (120 boys and 108 girls). The study implemented a quantitative approach. The main research…

Arithmetic word-problem solving is an important component of elementary mathematics curricula that links school mathematics to real-life problem solving. The present 3-year longitudinal study examined children's arithmetic word-problem solving through understanding its 2 component processes: number-sentence construction and computation. Chinese…

The present study examines narrative competence and its relationships with syntactic and prosodic skills in preschool children. The narrative skills of 30 typically developing Italian children were assessed during their first year of kindergarten attendance (T1) and again one year later (T2). A picture book was used to elicit children's…

The present study examines 5- to 8-year-old children's relation reasoning in solving matrix completion tasks. This study incorporates a componential analysis, an eye-tracking method, and a microgenetic approach, which together allow an investigation of the cognitive processing strategies involved in the development and learning of children's…

This longitudinal study examines the relative importance of counting ability, additive reasoning, and working memory in children's mathematical achievement (calculation and story problem solving). In Hong Kong, 115 Chinese children aged 6 years old participated in 2 waves of assessments (T1 = first grade and T2 = second grade). Multiple regression…

In this study, dynamic testing principles were applied to examine progression of analogy problem solving, the roles that cognitive flexibility and metacognition play in children's progression as well as training benefits, and instructional needs of 7- to 8-year-old gifted and average-ability children. Utilizing a pretest training posttest control…

Problem solving has been a core theme in education for several decades. Educators and policy makers agree on the importance of the role of problem solving skills for school and real life success. A primary purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of cognitive abilities on mathematical problem solving performance of elementary…

We recently proposed the Creative Reasoning Test (CRT), a test for reasoning in ill-defined problem spaces. The test asks children who first performed the Standard Progressive Matrices test (SPM) to next generate an SPM-style test item themselves. The item is scored based on different aspects of its complexity. Here we introduce a method to…

This study determined the working memory (WM) components (executive, phonological short-term memory [STM], and visual-spatial sketchpad) that best predicted mathematical word problem-solving accuracy in elementary schoolchildren (N = 392). The battery of tests administered to assess mediators between WM and problem-solving included measures of…

Explanations of the marked individual differences in elementary school mathematical achievement and mathematical learning disability (MLD or dyscalculia) have involved domain-general factors (working memory, reasoning, processing speed, and oral language) and numerical factors that include single-digit processing efficiency and multidigit skills…

Working with data from the PISA study (OECD, 2007), Lynn (2010) has argued that individuals from South Italy average an IQ approximately 10 points lower than individuals from North Italy, and has gone on to put forward a series of conclusions on the relationship between average IQ, latitude, average stature, income, etc. The present paper…

In this study, an instrument, Using Mathematics in Science Self-efficacy Scale (UMSSS), was developed in order to determine preservice science teachers' self-efficacy toward the use of mathematics in their lessons. Data gathered from 250 preservice science teachers were used for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis…

Little evidence supports that siblings with autism exhibit the same behaviors; however, some findings suggest that level of functioning shows familial aggregation. We tested this notion among multiplex families participating with the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE) Consortium, using scores on the "Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third…