NOT ALL CORRECT ANSWERS ARE EQUAL: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF STRATEGY IN REPEATING PATTERN ABSTRACTION
The 49th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Helsinki, Finlandiya, 27 Temmuz - 01 Ağustos 2026, ss.664, (Özet Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: Helsinki
- Basıldığı Ülke: Finlandiya
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.664
- Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
- Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Patterns are a central concept in mathematics education and support later achievement
and early algebraic thinking (e.g., Rittle-Johnson et al., 2017). Repeating patterns, a
foundational pattern type in early childhood, have been widely studied; however,
research has largely emphasized accuracy rather than strategy use. This study
investigates whether abstraction strategy use predicts performance in Repeating
Pattern Abstraction Task (RPAT) beyond the effects of age and Visuospatial Working
Memory (WM) in 4- to 6-year-old children. A convergent parallel mixed method
design was employed. 56 preschool children participated in one-to-one interviews. The
researcher-developed RPAT (12 items; α = .88) and the Corsi span task were
administered to assess visuospatial WM. Responses were scored dichotomously, and
children’s explanations were coded using a hybrid thematic analysis based on Lüken
and Sauzet’s (2021) strategy codes. A binomial generalized mixed-effects regression
tested the effect of strategy use on RPAT accuracy, while a second regression
examined the contributions of strategy use, controlling age and visuospatial WM to
RPAT accuracy. Binomial generalized mixed-effects analyses indicated that only
sequence awareness and unit identification strategies significantly predicted accuracy.
Age 6, compared to age 5, was also a significant predictor, whereas no differences were
found between 4- and 5-year-olds. Regression analyses further revealed a quadratic
relationship between abstraction strategy use and performance. The final model,
including age and visuospatial working memory, explained 76% of the variance in
abstraction scores. The current study extends the existing literature about repeating
patterning by highlighting the importance of children’s explanations and strategy use,
beyond the effects of age and visuospatial working memory. In the presentation, further
results and implications will be discussed in detail.
Acknowledgements: This study was supported by TUBITAK under the Grant
Number 124K343 and BIDEB 2210-A National Graduate Scholarship Program.
References
Lüken, M. M., & Sauzet, O. (2021). Patterning strategies in early childhood: a mixed methods
study examining 3- to 5-year-old children’s patterning competencies. Mathematical
Thinking and Learning, 23(1), 28–48.
Rittle-Johnson, B., Fyfe, E. R., Hofer, K. G., & Farran, D. C. (2017). Early Math
Trajectories: Low-Income Children’s Mathematics Knowledge From Ages 4 to 11. Child
Development, 88(5), 1727–1742.