David Uttal

In this project, researchers developed and tested interventions designed to help parents and teachers use symbolic objects, such as manipulatives, more effectively. The ability to understand letters, numbers, and mathematical symbols is critically important to learning in school and teachers often use such objects, commonly called manipulatives, to facilitate children's learning of mathematics. However, the underlying assumption that interacting with manipulatives would improve mathematics l...

 The goal of this project is to conduct validity research on a new measure intended for students in grades 2-8, the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT): Spatial Assessment, which was developed in collaboration with Riverside Insights and the digital design company Digital Artefacts. This assessment measures students' spatial reasoning skills and is used to inform instructional planning and evaluation. Spatial reasoning is critical to student achievement, particularly in early math skills. At l...

Northwestern University's Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences (MPES), originally funded by IES in 2004, is designed to provide doctoral students from a variety of disciplines (including economics, human development, learning sciences, psychology, sociology, and statistics) with the knowledge, expertise, and technical skills to conduct rigorous empirical research in education policy and student learning in collaboration with education agencies.

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the impact of a spatial skills training curriculum on mathematics achievement for middle school students. Well-developed spatial skills have been shown to be important to success in a variety of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. However, causal studies showing a link between spatial skills training and future STEM performance represent a significant gap in our understanding of the link between spatial skills and STEM a...