A conversation exploring research strategy
Conversation context: The conversation was for the interests of a postgraduate class in Education. It explored the researchers’ thinking behind a study reported here on the mathematics difficulties of children born preterm (the Abstract is reproduced below).
Research problem: For children born preterm, educational outcomes are, in general, less favourable compared to their peers. But this is disproportionally the case for mathematics. The study compared 8-10 year old preterm children with (‘control’) peers to explore this mathematics shortfall by identifying which were the ‘foundational’ or the ‘general’ cognitive skills implicated.
Findings: Previous studies of less favourable educational outcomes in mathematics were replicated. The present findings were not explained by measures of general intelligence or socio-economic status. Neither did they reveal difficulties with numerical representations (as found in developmental dyscalculia). Rather the preterm children’s difficulties resided in domain general cognitive factors – working memory and visuospatial skills. Implications for intervention were discussed.
Conversational themes: The motivation for the research was discussed. Tensions of interpretation were then considered between a more individual-oriented approach typical of traditional cognitive psychology and approaches that dwell on the child’s wider classroom context for learning.
Download the conversation transcript – as a Microsoft Word file or as a PDF file
The questions
0.28 How did this paper come about
3.45: In comparing the preterm group with (control) peers, how did you chose which mathematics tasks to compare?
6.24: If you drew on the ‘mathematical cognition’ literature to define those tasks, how easy was that – given the literature is a little messy?
8.00: How would the ambition to inform educational interventions from this research work?
12.39:: How would you describe this field of ‘mathematical cognition’?
14.35: So is the research programme goal of this ‘how the human mind understands mathematics’?
16.02:How do you regard a critique of research strategy that neglects the social/cultural context of the classroom?
The paper Abstract
Background: Children born very preterm (<32 wk) are at high risk for mathematics learning difficulties that are out of proportion to other academic and cognitive deficits. However, the etiology of mathematics difficulties in very preterm children is unknown. We sought to identify the nature and origins of preterm children’s mathematics difficulties.
Methods: One hundred and fifteen very preterm children aged 8–10 yrs were assessed in school with a control group of 77 term-born classmates. Achievement in mathematics, working memory, visuospatial processing, inhibition, and processing speed were assessed using standardized tests. Numerical representations and specific mathematics skills were assessed using experimental tests.
Results: Very preterm children had significantly poorer mathematics achievement, working memory, and visuospatial skills than term-born controls. Although preterm children had poorer performance in specific mathematics skills, there was no evidence of imprecise numerical representations. Difficulties in mathematics were associated with deficits in visuospatial processing and working memory.
Conclusion: Mathematics difficulties in very preterm children are associated with deficits in working memory and visuospatial processing not numerical representations. Thus, very preterm children’s mathematics difficulties are different in nature from those of children with developmental dyscalculia. Interventions targeting general cognitive problems, rather than numerical representations, may improve very preterm children’s mathematics achievement.
Authored by:
Victoria Simms
Victoria Simms is a developmental psychologist with a specific interest in the development of mathematical thinking in both typically and atypically developing children
Matthew Inglis
Matthew Inglis is Professor of Mathematical Cognition at Loughborough University
Matthew completed undergraduate (BSc Mathematics) and postgraduate (MSc Mathematics Education, PhD Education) studies at the University of Warwick. Following a period as a Research Fellow at the Learning Sciences Research Institute in Nottingham, he took up a lectureship in Loughborough in 2008.
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