Representational Fluency in Education: A Literature Review and the Proposal of a New Instrument

As the first stage of a multi-year project that aims to develop computer-based tools offering adaptive remedial interventions for primary level students, we present here a literature review we conducted on the use of multiple representations in education. We also provide a more focused review on the subtopic of representational fluency. Next, we build on this review to justify the need for a representational fluency test for primary school students. We set the foundations of this proposed instrument by identifying the competences it has to cover, in the light of literature, local curriculum, previous exams, and discussions with educators. Finally, in the future work section we elucidate the next stages of our project, which include testing and using our proposed representational fluency test. The outcomes of using this test are planned to be used later to design and develop an intelligent system that provides remedial interventions personalized for each student with representational fluency weaknesses. We expect that our work can contribute toward the learning of STEM subjects at the primary level and beyond.