The development of primary school students’ 3D geometrical thinking within a dynamic transformation context

This study examines children’s thinking about geometrical solids through an investigation of dynamic transformations employed by young children making mental transformations of an orthogonal parallelepiped. The focus of the study is on the investigation of the role that a dynamic environment could play in the development of children’s geometrical thinking concerning geometrical solids and their properties. Twenty 6th grade children, who had previously worked with dynamic transformations of physical models of geometrical solids in their classroom, were interviewed. Analysis of the data resulted in a categorization of children’s thinking, and indicated a development from a perceptual to a geometrical consideration of the solid. Although not all the children reached an advanced level of thinking, the context of dynamic transformations promoted the development of most children’s geometrical thinking. There is also an indication that children’s experience with dynamic transformations of physical models in a mathematics classroom environment can act to allow children to transfer experience to the context of mental transformations.