Mathematics Education Research Journal

, Volume 10, Issue 3, pp 28–41 | Cite as

Covering shapes with tiles: Primary students’ visualisation and drawing

  • Kay Owens
  • Lynne Outhred
Articles

Abstract

Students’ early area concepts were investigated by an analysis of responses to a worksheet of items that involved visualising the tiling of given figures. Students in Years 2 and 4 in four schools attempted the items on three occasions and some of the students completed ten classroom spatial activities. Half the students had difficulty visualising the tiling of shapes, but students who participated in spatial activities were generally more successful in determining the number of tiles that would cover a shape. Students’ drawings indicated a varying awareness of structural features such as alignment and tile size. Students who drew the tilings were more likely to be successful on the items involving trapezia. The tiling items were part of a test of spatial thinking, Thinking About 2D Shapes, and scores on the overall test were very highly correlated with results for the tiling items.

Keywords

Equilateral Triangle Concrete Material Tile Size Spatial Activity Pattern Block 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Inc. 1998

Authors and Affiliations

  • Kay Owens
    • 1
  • Lynne Outhred
    • 2
  1. 1.Faculty of EducationUniversity of Western Sydney MacarthurCampbelltownAustralia
  2. 2.School of EducationMacquarie UniversityAustralia

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