"Examining the Relations Between Spatial Skills, Spatial Anxiety, and K‐12 Teacher Practice"

juliep — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 17:27:15 +0000

"Examining the Relations Between Spatial Skills, Spatial Anxiety, and K‐12 Teacher Practice" juliep Thu, 12/17/2020 - 09:27 More News December 17, 2020

Assistant Professor Kinnari Atit and doctoral student Kelsey Rocha recently published a research article titled “Examining the Relations Between Spatial Skills, Spatial Anxiety, and K‐12 Teacher Practice” in the Mind, Brain, and Education journal.

Examining the Relations Between Spatial Skills, Spatial Anxiety, and K‐12 Teacher Practice

Abstract:
Spatial skills are important for student success in STEM disciplines at the K‐12 educational level. Teachers' spatial skills and feelings about completing spatial tasks influence their teaching as well as their students' spatial learning. However, the relation between teachers' spatial skills and their spatial anxiety is not well understood. Here we investigated if teachers' spatial skills influence two kinds of small‐scale spatial anxiety: (a) anxiety for tasks involving visual imagery and (b) anxiety for tasks involving mental manipulations. In addition, we investigated if teachers' spatial skills in conjunction with their small‐scale spatial anxiety influence the integration of spatial practices, such as gestures and diagrams, into their teaching. Eighty‐two K‐12 teachers completed two subscales of small‐scale spatial anxiety, a measure of spatial skills, and a teaching activities questionnaire. Results indicate that teachers' spatial skills are negatively associated with their spatial anxiety for mental manipulation tasks, and positively associated with their use of spatial practices. These findings highlight the need to account for teachers' spatial skills when considering how to improve students' spatial learning.

Kinnari Atit’s areas of research include the intersection of spatial thinking and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. She examines how to bolster student learning of spatially demanding STEM content (such as learning about molecules in chemistry) through both in-person and multimedia learning platforms. Additionally, she is interested in understanding how K-12 teachers' spatial skills influence their teaching practices, especially when teaching STEM concepts. Dr. Atit is the director of the STEM Teaching and Learning lab.

Kelsey Rocha is an educational psychology doctoral student at the Graduate School of Education at UCR. Kelsey's research interests revolve around STEM teaching and the role that teachers play in their students' acquisition of various STEM-related concepts. Further, she is interested in the role that spatial skills and spatial anxiety play in teacher practice. In the future she also hopes to look at the relationship between different types of spatial skills (i.e. mental rotation, navigation, etc.) and their relationship to specific mathematical concepts (i.e., reasoning about numerical equations at the elementary level, reasoning about geometry problems at the secondary level, etc.).

"Teaching from Home: Online Learning for Student Success During Challenging Times"

juliep — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 16:20:37 +0000

"Teaching from Home: Online Learning for Student Success During Challenging Times" juliep Thu, 07/23/2020 - 09:20 More News July 23, 2020

With the recent announcement of schools throughout the region starting online in the Fall, educators are, once again, implementing distance learning. To support our alumni and community partners in taking their classrooms virtual, UC Riverside Graduate School of Education is hosting a Zoom conversation with Interim Dean Louie Rodriguez and GSOE faculty centered on effective online teaching strategies on Thursday, July 30 at 3pm.

The event, which marks the first in the new "GSOE in the Community" series, aims to begin a conversation on practical strategies for online teaching between GSOE faculty and community members. Our goal is to provide as many practical responses as possible to help facilitate student and teacher success.

"Teaching from Home: Online Learning for Student Success During Challenging Times"
Thursday, July 30, 3pm - 4pm
REGISTER HERE

Some of the topics that will be addressed:

What active learning methods can be applied to an online format?
What are some of the best ways to engage students in STEM content areas?
What should my expectations be in an online teaching format?
What equity concerns should educators be considering in the context of a pandemic and ongoing challenges with race, racism, and systemic inequality?

**The webinar will be hosted in Zoom. You're invited to submit questions ahead of time when you register.**

FEATURED PANELISTS

Interim Dean Louie Rodriguez

Dr. Louie F. Rodríguez is an educator, researcher, author, professor, and speaker in the field of urban education. He is the current Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Education at UCR, the Bank of America Chair in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Practice, and the founding director of the Center for Educational Transformation. His research examines issues in Latina/o/x education, participatory action research, and educational equity. Dr. Rodriguez is the author of nearly 50 publications, and has received numerous honors including the American Education Research Association (AERA) Hispanic Research Issues SIG Award for Research in Elementary, Secondary, and Postsecondary Education in 2019, and Outstanding Latino Faculty by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) in 2015.

Dr. Kinnari Atit
Assistant Professor, UCR GSOE

Dr. Kinnari Atit is an assistant professor in educational psychology. Her research aims to increase access and broaden participation in STEM by focusing her work on two areas: 1) supporting and developing K-16 students’ and educators’ skills relevant to STEM teaching and learning, and 2) promoting STEM learning through engagement in multimedia learning platforms. She is the principal investigator on a grant from the California Department of Education titled Supporting Student Learning about Molecular Structures from Simulations. For this project, she leads a research team that will design and determine effective online formative assessments and the associated feedback for online simulations presenting fundamental introductory chemistry concepts. Additionally, she is the co-principal investigator on a Plant Biology Learning Objectives, Outreach Materials & Education grant which aims to measure the efficacy of a one-year outreach program that brings NGSS-aligned plant sciences activities to local middle school classrooms.

Dr. Eddie Comeaux
Associate Professor, UCR GSOE

Dr. Eddie Comeaux is an associate professor of higher education, and founder and executive director of the Center for Athletes’ Rights and Equity (CARE) at the University of California, Riverside. His research interests are located in the broad field of higher education and include racial equity and policy issues. Dr. Comeaux has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and other academic publications and reports. He has also published five books, including his most recent book: High Achieving African American Students and the College Choice Process: Applying Critical Race Theory (Routledge, 2020). For his scholarly work, Dr. Comeaux received the Outstanding Contribution Award from AERA’s Research Focus on Education and Sport Special Interest Group (SIG), and the Dr. Carlos J. Vallejo Memorial Award for Exemplary Scholarship from AERA’s Multicultural/Multiethnic Education SIG.

Dr. Cathy Lussier
Assistant Professor, UCR GSOE

Dr. Cathy Lussier, an assistant professor of teaching, has been the director of two U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences grants (one focused on problem-solving interventions using working memory in mathematics, the other on literacy and cognition for Spanish-speaking English Learners). Prior to that, she co-directed The Copernicus Project, a U.S. Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary Education five-year grant aimed at STEM teacher development and making science more accessible to underrepresented high school and community college students. She is also the co-principal investigator of the NSF Noyce Scholars program, the faculty co-director of the Cal Teach Science Math Initiative (SMI), and the faculty team leader for the NASA Minority Education Institute (NASA MEI). Additionally, she has worked for several years with her colleagues at NASA-JPL to provide K-12 student and STEM training and teacher development workshops throughout southern California.