Teaching Geometry with Tangrams

Russell, Dorothy S.; Bologna, Elaine M.

doi:10.5951/at.30.2.0034

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Using manipulatives to help elementary students transition from concrete to the abstract mathematical thinking is also well established (e.g., Moyer, 2001;Sarama & Clements, 2009). Tangrams are useful for developing students' geometric skills (Russell & Bologna, 1982;Siew et al, 2013;Tchoshanov, 2011); its constituent pieces, tans, have both visual and tactile appeal and learners can manipulate them through hands-on experiences. Additionally, tans as unplugged resources, can add to teachers' basket of strategies to promote mental modeling, thus engaging learning in cognitive tasks (Looi et al, 2020).…”

Section: Geometric Thinking At the Elementary Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing gamification for geometry in elementary schools: insights from the designers

Kamalodeen

Ramsawak-Jodha

Figaro-Henry

et al. 2021

Smart Learn. Environ.

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Popularly used in marketing and business, gamification has been gaining interest in educational contexts for its potential to invigorate otherwise mundane or difficult processes. A gamified environment transfers motivational elements of games to learning activities thereby engaging learners in the learning task thus transforming dull classroom environments to smart ones. This paper presents the design process of a gamification intervention in geometry at elementary level, based upon Huang and Soman (Gamification of education. Research report series: behavioural economics in action, 29. Rothman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, 2013) model. We describe how insights from various sources helped us to refine an intervention previously used in one school. The design focuses on gamifying the tangram, an unplugged resource, through incorporating game-based elements of leader boards, points/stars and challenge levels to motivate young learners individually and in teams. Cognitive and motivational scaffolding undergird five challenge levels to bring affordances to self and social elements for learner participation in increasingly complex geometry tasks. There are limited theoretical models to guide educational researchers, especially ones that do not require digital resources. This paper presents our insights and recommendations to support scaffolded learning in student-centred gamified learning environments.

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Section: Geometric Thinking At the Elementary Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing gamification for geometry in elementary schools: insights from the designers

Kamalodeen

Ramsawak-Jodha

Figaro-Henry

et al. 2021

Smart Learn. Environ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…According to Slocum (2003), Chinese tangrams first existed during the Sung dynasty in the form of a banquet table that could be used for playing geometry games. Since then, the educational value of tangrams was realized, and people employed it to teach geometry (Russell & Bologna, 1982) and assess creativity (Domino, 1980). However, to the best of our knowledge, Chinese tangrams have not been used in the domain of emergent literacy skills development.…”

Section: Chinese Tangram Properties and Their Link With Chinese And English Orthographymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Link Between a Set of Tangram-Based Tasks and Chinese and English Reading and Related Skills Among Chinese Kindergarteners

et al. 2019

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Learning to read two scripts at a young age is a demanding task. This study aims to develop games for building fundamental code-related emergent literacy skills among biscriptal preschoolers. We developed five games and tested them on a sample of 102 Chinese kindergarteners. The participants were aged 4 to 5 years and were learning English as a second language. The children's reading skills were measured with a battery of literacy tests as well as estimated by their teachers using a literacy-related behavior checklist. Correlational analysis revealed that the performances of the children in the tangram games were significantly correlated with teachers' ratings and children's Raven's IQ. Further regression analysis confirmed that the tangram hand-copying game predicted unique variances for visual-orthographic skills and word identification abilities in Chinese and English. This study provides valuable evidence regarding the application of tangram games for assessing code-related emergent literacy skills in the visual domain.

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“…Tangrams allow children to develop geometric concepts by categorising, comparing and working out the puzzle and thereupon to solve problems in geometric contexts (Lin, 2011). Studies show that tangrams inspire children's observation, imagination, shape analysis, creativity and logical thinking (Olkun et al, 2005;Russell and Bologna, 1982;Yang and Chen, 2010). Consequently, playing with tangrams can help children to develop their skills of geometry vocabulary, shape identification, shape orientation and discover relationships between and among the 2-dimensional geometry shapes (Bohning and Althouse, 1997;Krieger, 1991;National Council of Teacher's Mathematics, 2003).…”

Section: Children In Thementioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Geometry in a Large-Enrollment Class: Do Tangrams Help in Developing Students’ Geometric Thinking?

Siew

2012

BJESBS

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Teaching Geometry with Tangrams

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Designing gamification for geometry in elementary schools: insights from the designers

Designing gamification for geometry in elementary schools: insights from the designers

The Link Between a Set of Tangram-Based Tasks and Chinese and English Reading and Related Skills Among Chinese Kindergarteners

Learning Geometry in a Large-Enrollment Class: Do Tangrams Help in Developing Students’ Geometric Thinking?

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