[MATHLINK] MCLS Late Night, Mentorship, and Speed Networking (Oh My!)

[MCLS Trainee]

Dear MCLS Community,

Please be sure to join us for our next symposium *“Principle knowledge in
mathematics: its development, cognitive predictors, and potential
interventions*" *tomorrow Thursday, March 25 at 6pm EST (LATE NIGHT!). *Note
that because of current time differences, this will be 10pm in London, 6am
in Hong Kong, and 9am in Australia. Come with your wine, beer, bedtime tea,
or morning coffee!

We're excited to hear from Katherine Robinson (Campion College, the
University of Regina, Canada), Terry Wong (University of Hong Kong, Hong
Kong), Richard Prather (University of Maryland, College Park, USA),
and Martha Alibali (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA). See below for an
abstract.

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MCLS Trainee is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: MCLS Symposium March 25
Time: Mar 25, 2021 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2258337242?pwd=eVhxaXhuSm96dHFKSWRQL1hWMDJFZz09

Meeting ID: 225 833 7242
Passcode: MCLS2020b
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Other Announcements:

   - Please submit your questions
   <https://the-mcls.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=52a664da881817eed812437d0&id=7881f47cfc&e=f13dd00558>
for
   our panel discussion on the Academic Job Market on March 30. We are so
   excited about our incredible panel, which includes Daniel Ansari, Camilla
   Gilmore, Nancy Jordan, Kerry Lee, Jo-Anne LeFevre, Koleen McKrink, and H-C
   Nuerk.
   - In an effort to foster new collaborations and conversations, we will
   be hosting *Speed Symposium Networking Meetings* at the following times
   to help build symposia for the 2021 conference. All sessions will be held
   at the same link for MCLS meetings (see above). There's no need to come to
   more than one meeting, and others will be scheduled as we move forward!
      - Monday, March 29 10am EST // 3pm London // 10pm Hong Kong // 1am
      March 30 Australia
      - Monday, March 29 10pm EST // Tuesday March 30 3am London // 10am
      Hong Kong // 1pm Australia
      - Thursday April 1 9am EST // 2pm London // 9pm Hong Kong // 12am
      April 2 Australia
   - Also wanted to remind everyone that the submission Qualtrics is open
   for the 2021 conference
   <https://the-mcls.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=52a664da881817eed812437d0&id=79d1393375&e=f13dd00558>!
   The call for abstract can be found here
   <https://the-mcls.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=52a664da881817eed812437d0&id=c6c5bcbbc9&e=f13dd00558>
   .
      - Deadlines for all submission types are April 15 and June 1. Neither
      date will receive priority, but submissions for the April 15 deadline are
      more likely to be scheduled earlier in our program.
      - We will have ongoing calls for lightning talks and posters
      throughout the year to be able to address up-to-the-minute
emerging science.
   - We are also inviting reviewers for conference submissions at all
   levels. Volunteer to be a reviewer here
   <https://the-mcls.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=52a664da881817eed812437d0&id=4b3efc05e4&e=f13dd00558>
   .

Finally, be sure to mark your calendars for our upcoming events:

*Tuesday, March 30 (9 am-11am EST // 2 hour workshop) *- Panel Discussion
on the Academic Job Market
*No meeting week of April 5 on account of SRCD*
*Tuesday, April 13 (9 am EST) *- Spontaneous mathematical focusing
tendencies and the development of early mathematical skills
*Thursday, April 22 (11am EST) *- Alternative models of the Approximate
Number System

Thanks!

The MCLS Training Board

*Abstract*

This symposium will focus on principle knowledge in mathematics. Principles
are defined as the fundamental laws or regularities that apply within a
problem domain (Prather & Alibali, 2009). Examples of such principles
include inversion (e.g., a + b – b = a) and relation to operands (e.g., for
any positive b, if a + b = c, then c > a). The current symposium will
discuss various issues related to principle knowledge understanding,
including the development of such knowledge, the cognitive predictors of
such knowledge, as well as some interventions that are designed to improve
students’ principle knowledge.

In the first talk, Prof. Katherine Robinson will share the results of a
three-year longitudinal study that tracked fourth graders’ understanding of
three arithmetic principles, namely inversion, associativity, and
equivalence. In the second talk, Dr. Terry Wong will present the findings
of a study that examined the roles of different cognitive capacities (e.g.,
intelligence, working memory, spatial skills, processing speed, and
inhibition) in the understanding of four arithmetic principles
(commutativity, inversion, relation to operands, and direction of effect)
among fourth graders.

The last two talks are about the potential interventions. In the third
talk, Dr. Richard Prather will share the findings of a study that examined
the relation between participant’s knowledge of the relation to operands
principle in both positive and negative numbers and their spontaneous focus
on numerical relations. He also tested whether feedback directing attention
to relations affected participants’ attention to relation and their
arithmetic principle knowledge. Finally, Prof. Martha Alibali will present
a study that tested the effectiveness of a software-based intelligent
tutoring system in improving middle-school students’ principle knowledge
related to algebra (e.g., equality, inverse operations, isolating the
variable, doing the same thing to both sides, and preserving the unknown
value across steps).

The symposium aims to stimulate discussions on the topic of principle
knowledge in mathematics. We hope that such discussion will generate new
insights for future research on this topic.