Time Reading in Middle and Secondary School Students: The Influence of Basic-Numerical Abilities

Abstract

Time reading skills are central for the management of personal and professional life. However, little is known about the differential influence of basic numerical abilities on analog and digital time reading in general and in middle and secondary school students in particular. The present study investigated the influence of basic numerical skills separately for analog and digital time reading in N = 709 students from 5th to 8th grade. The present findings suggest that the development of time reading skills is not completed by the end of primary school. Results indicated that aspects of magnitude manipulation and arithmetic fact knowledge predicted analog time reading significantly over and above the influence of age. Furthermore, results showed that spatial representations of number magnitude, magnitude manipulation, arithmetic fact knowledge, and conceptual knowledge were significant predictors of digital time reading beyond general cognitive ability and sex. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to show differential effects of basic numerical abilities on analog and digital time reading skills in middle and secondary school students. As time readings skills are crucial for everyday life, these results are highly relevant to better understand basic numerical processes underlying time reading.

Keywords:

• Basic numerical abilities
• mathematics
• secondary school
• time reading

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to restrictions set up by the local school boards on data security.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded and is part of the research program “Netzwerk Bildungsforschung” (Educational Research Network) of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung provided to Katharina Lambert and was additionally partly funded by the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network [GSC1028], a project of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. Silke M. Bieck was funded by the LEAD Graduate School and Research Network. Korbinian Moeller is principal investigator at the LEAD Graduate School and Research Network. Katharina Lambert is a member of the LEAD Graduate School and Research Network.