In a statistical analysis of the results of 269 students (5th to 9th grade) in Cyprus,
Marios Pittalis tried to show that 3D geometry thinking can be described across the
following factors: (a) recognition and construction of nets, (b) representation of 3D
objects, (c) structuring of 3D arrays of cubes, (d) recognition of 3D shapes’
properties, (e) calculation of the volume and the area of solids, and (f) comparison of
the properties of 3D shapes. With these factors, he identified four different profiles of
students. In the future, it would be useful to make these kinds of studies in various
contexts with other theoretical frameworks to validate the conclusions.