Translating Research to Practice: Practitioner Use of the Spatial Reasoning Toolkit

Abstract

A robust finding in cognitive psychology is that training children’s spatial abilities is an effective route to improving mathematics performance. Despite this finding, there is limited representation of spatial reasoning in school curricula. To bridge this gap between research and practice, we created the Spatial Reasoning Toolkit (SRT; Gifford et al., 2022). In Study 1, we provide quantitative data of practitioner knowledge of spatial reasoning ( N = 94) and their intended use of the SRT ( N = 74). One year after the toolkit was launched, we compare these samples to a sample of SRT users ( N = 59). In Study 2, we present case studies from three different school settings of users of the SRT. Results demonstrate that practitioners judged the SRT to be very useful. As intended, practitioners used it mainly for professional learning and for planning, but confidence in their ability to define spatial reasoning was mixed. Three diverse case studies demonstrate flexibility in application of the SRT resources, exemplifying that every child is unique and might not conform to the ‘typical’ trajectory. Practitioner time was presented as a barrier; this limitation was somewhat overcome by presenting multiple resource types, but nevertheless highlighted the need to maximize accessibility when translating research to practice.