The development, application and evaluation of a three dimensional reasoning test for grades 1 to 4

The purpose of this study was to develop a Three Dimensional Reasoning Test to determine elementary school 1st-4th grade students' state of three-dimensional thinking and to examine how the students' state of three-dimensional geometrical thinking varies depending on the grade level variable by using this test. The Three Dimensional Reasoning Test developed in the current study is a standard pen and paper test. This test was developed by following the standard test development processes including the determination of the sub-components of geometrical thinking and development of items to measure each of these sub-components. The study group of this quantitative research employing survey model is comprised of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students. Thus, in the study conducted with a total of 520 elementary school students the scores taken from the the Three Dimensional Reasoning Test were compared across the grade levels and the relationships between the sub-components of three-dimensional geometrical thinking were analyzed. The research findings show that the Three Dimensional Reasoning Test developed in the current study is valid, reliable and suitable. It was also found that with increasing grade level, the scores taken from the Three Dimensional Reasoning Test increased significantly. Moreover, positive and medium level correlations were found between the sub-components of three-dimensional geometrical thinking. The research findings revealed that the Three Dimensional Reasoning Test developed in the current study is an effective tool to determine the elementary school students' state of three-dimensional geometrical thinking. The variation of the scores taken from the test according to grade level demonstrates that grade level is a variable influential on the three-dimensional geometrical thinking. Key Words: Geometrical thinking, Three-dimensional geometrical thinking, Three Dimensional Reasoning Test, Elementary school 1st-4th graders