Abstract: Geometry is an important mathematical domain, especially for students with general learning difficulties (LD). However, not much is known about geometry learning of students with LD, possible difficulties, and needs for support. The aim of this paper is to investigate if and how students with LD differ in the identification of quadrilaterals from students without LD. We carried out an eye-tracking study with 184 students (20 with LD, 164 without LD) in which students were asked if given shapes were quadrilaterals. We analyzed students’ error rates (from their oral responses) and their strategies, based on qualitative analysis of eye-tracking videos. We found that students with LD tended to make more mistakes than students without LD and to regard the quadrilaterals more often holistically, paying less attention to their properties. Our findings indicate that the students with LD tended to perceive the shapes holistically more often and to pay (visual) attention to their properties less often than students without LD, which indicates that they more likely relied on prototypical ideas than students without LD, and need according support. However, we found that also students without LD showed difficulties identifying non-prototypical quadrilaterals, which indicates that many students need support in this area.

Schindler, M., Simon, A.L., Czimek, E., & Rott, B. (2024). Geometry learning of students with general learning difficulties: An eye-tracking study on the identification of quadrilaterals. In T. Evans, O. Marmur, J. Hunter, & G. Leach (Eds.). Proceedings of the 47th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 4, pp. 73-80). PME.