Professor Yukari Okamoto and Ph.D. candidate David Hallowell at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School are co-authors with lead author Brent Davis of the just published Spatial Reasoning in the Early Years (Routledge, 2015). Okamoto and Hallowell are members of the Spatial Reasoning Study Group, a transdisciplinary team that engages in collaborative research on the philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy of spatial reasoning. Its members work in and across mathematics education, mathematics, psychology, curriculum studies, and cognitive science. They endeavor to improve education in its many aspects by catalyzing the spatial insights of diverse fields into educational knowledge and practice.
Over the past several years, “spatial reasoning” has gained renewed prominence among mathematics educators, as spatial skills are proving to be not just essential to mathematical understanding but also strong predictors of future success beyond the classroom in fields such as science, technology, and engineering. By exploring both primary and emergent dimensions, Spatial Reasoning in the Early Years helps define the concept of spatial reasoning and provides compelling evidence of the need for a clear focus within early education specifically. The authors review the research, look across current theories, and investigate implications for contemporary school mathematics pedagogy as they identify areas of inquiry necessary to bring a stronger spatial reasoning emphasis into the classroom.
The book contains many classroom- or workshop-based vignettes, highlighting the complexity of spatial reasoning in educational practice, providing an in-depth analysis of spatial reasoning as it applies to classroom practice, and offering new ways of framing lessons to help young students hone their spatial reasoning abilities. The book concludes with a forward-looking agenda that contributes to developing a greater understanding of the role spatial reasoning plays in educational contexts and beyond. Supported by plentiful visual representations, Spatial Reasoning in the Early Years skillfully integrates the conceptual and the concrete, making this text a dynamic and accessible resource.
Yukari Okamoto is a Professor in the Department of Education who specializes in children’s cognitive development. She is particularly interested in young children’s numerical, scientific, and spatial thinking. Her current projects include: (1) the development of rational number knowledge, (2) preschool children’s biological reasoning, and (3) young children’s geometric and spatial thinking.
David Hallowell is currently a third-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Education with an emphasis in child and adolescent development and an interdisciplinary emphasis in cognitive science. His advisor is Dr. Yukari Okamoto. Hallowell’s current research interests include children’s thinking and domains of spatial reasoning and mathematical development. Hallowell is a proud father of two: a six-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. Hallowell hopes to be a university professor after graduation.