Ajay Ramful

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

The spatial requirements of the left-hand rule: a novel instrument for assessing the coordination of egocentric and allocentric frames of reference

By Ajay Ramful

This paper explores the spatial dimension of Fleming's Left Hand Rule (LHR), commonly-used in Physics instruction for determining the direction of force using the left hand's thumb, forefinger and middle finger. A new instrument was developed to gauge students' ability to coordinate their fingers in 3D space (egocentric frame of reference) based on representations of tasks on paper/screen (allocentric frame of reference). The LHR scores from a sample of 530 Grade 10 and 11 students revealed a significant correlation to standard spatial reasoning measures, with a reliability of 0.77. About 90% of the students scored less than 10 points out of 22, highlighting the relevance of the spatial skills required for articulating the LHR. Science students performed significantly better than non-Science students. The manipulation of the LHR was strongly influenced by the degree of angular disparity between the body frame and task-defined frame and the kinaesthetic constraints required to rotate the triad of fingers as a perpendicular frame.

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What does teaching of spatial visualisation skills incur: an exploration through the visualise-predict-check heuristic

By Ajay Ramful

A major challenge in the field of spatial reasoning is the translation of decades of accumulated research findings from the domain of psychology and mathematics education into the school mathematics curriculum. This study aimed to operationalise a heuristic termed visualise-predict-check (VPC) for the teaching of spatial visualisation and explore the affordances for enabling teachers to foster spatial reasoning. We conducted moment-by-moment and fine-grained analysis of teaching-learning transactions of two teachers who implemented a lesson devised on the basis of the VPC heuristic. The data sources included video-taped recordings and classroom observations. The VPC heuristic provided teaching trajectories to explicitly prompt students to engage in spatial visualisation while learning mathematics and in so doing the class routine was remarkably spatially elevated. However, subtle disparities in the implementation of the lesson lead to differences in students’ engagement. The more deliberate VPC fostered students’ spatial thinking whereas the limited application of VPC tended to inhibit opportunities for reasoning spatially. VPC offers much potential to enhance spatial skills both in classroom routine teaching and in specialised interventions. © 2020, Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc.

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