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Nora S Newcombe - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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harnessing Spatial Thinking to support stem learning
Research Papers in Economics, 2017Co-Authors: Nora S NewcombeAbstract:Spatial intelligence concerns the locations of objects, their shapes, their relations, and the paths they take as they move. Recognition of Spatial skills enriches the traditional educational focus on developing literacy and numerical skills to include a cognitive domain particularly relevant to achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This report reviews research showing that (a) Spatial Thinking and STEM learning are related, and (b) Spatial Thinking is malleable. It evaluates two strategies for exploiting these findings in education. Strategy 1 involves direct training of Spatial skills. Strategy 2 involves Spatialising the curriculum, using tools suited to Spatial Thinking including Spatial language, maps, diagrams, graphs, analogical comparison, physical activity that instantiates scientific or mathematical principles, gesture and sketching. Existing data support including Spatial Thinking and tools in designing curricula, training teachers and developing assessments. At the same time research continues to evaluate the effectiveness of the efforts and explore mechanisms.
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the relation between Spatial Thinking and proportional reasoning in preschoolers
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2015Co-Authors: Wenke Mohring, Nora S Newcombe, Andrea FrickAbstract:Previous research has indicated a close link between Spatial and mathematical Thinking. However, what shared processes account for this link? In this study, we focused on the Spatial skill of map reading and the mathematical skill of proportional reasoning and investigated whether scaling, or the ability to relate information in different-sized representations, is a shared process. Scaling was experimentally manipulated in both tasks. In the map task, 4- and 5-year-olds (N=50) were asked to point to the same position shown on a map in a larger referent space on a touch screen. The sizes of the maps were varied systematically, such that some trials required scaling and some did not (i.e., the map had the same size as the referent space). In the proportional reasoning task, children were presented with different relative amounts of juice and water and were asked to estimate each mixture on a rating scale. Again, some trials required scaling, but others could be solved by directly mapping the proportional components onto the rating scale. Children's absolute errors in locating targets in the map task were closely related to their performance in the proportional reasoning task even after controlling for age and verbal intelligence. Crucially, this was only true for trials that required scaling, whereas performance on nonscaled trials was not related. These results shed light on the mechanisms involved in the close connection between Spatial and mathematical Thinking early in life.
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Thinking about Spatial Thinking new typology new assessments
2015Co-Authors: Nora S Newcombe, Thomas F ShipleyAbstract:Our world is a world that exists in space, and a world without space is literally inconceivable. Given this basic truth, it is clear that living in the world requires Spatial functioning of some kind. Being creative in this world, and designing new tools and new habitats, probably requires even higher levels of Spatial functioning. And people vary in their levels of Spatial ability. What do these facts mean for the field of design? There are certain obvious practical questions. For example, should design schools accept only applicants who test high in Spatial ability, following the lead of dental schools, which assess Spatial thought on the Dental Admissions Test or with practical exercises in assignments such as tooth modeling? Or should design schools strive to enhance the Spatial ability of anyone with the desire to do creative design, following the lead of selection committees for surgical residencies, which do not assess Spatial ability in any way? The latter course is arguably supported by evidence (to be discussed later) showing that Spatial skill is malleable. As another example of a practical question for design, consider what designers should or could know about the potential users of a product. What kinds and levels of Spatial abilities should they assume that users will have? How would they be able to predict when a new tool will be too hard to master for many users, or when a building design will result in an environment in which many people easily get lost?
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Spatial Thinking across the college curriculum a report on a specialist meeting
Spatial Cognition and Computation, 2014Co-Authors: Donald G Janelle, Mary Hegarty, Nora S NewcombeAbstract:Abstract:This report presents findings from a specialist meeting of Spatially-minded researchers and administrators from education and industry to consider prospects for introducing courses and curricula on Spatial Thinking in higher education. More than 40 participants explored the rationale for expanding student exposure to concepts, tools, and applications of Spatial reasoning across a range of science, engineering, and humanities disciplines. The focus was on what we know and what we need to know to make the case for space, underscoring basic research on what is meant by Spatial Thinking and on variations in the Spatial reasoning skills required in different domains of knowledge. The need for rigorous assessments of learning outcomes associated with different approaches to teaching Spatial Thinking was emphasized.
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exploring and enhancing Spatial Thinking links to achievement in science technology engineering and mathematics
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2013Co-Authors: David H Uttal, David I Miller, Nora S NewcombeAbstract:Although neglected in traditional education, Spatial Thinking plays a critical role in achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. We review this relationship and investigate the malleability of Spatial Thinking. Can Spatial Thinking be improved with training, life experience, or educational interventions? Can improving Spatial Thinking improve STEM achievement? Research indicates that the answer is “yes” to both questions. A recent quantitative synthesis of 206 Spatial training studies found an average training improvement of 0.47 standard deviations. Training effects lasted for months in studies examining durability and transferred to tasks that differed at least moderately from training tasks. A few studies indicate that Spatial training can improve STEM learning, although more research needs to be done on this issue. We argue that including Spatial Thinking in STEM curricula could substantially increase the number of Americans with the requisite cognitive skills to ...
David H Uttal - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Spatial activity participation in childhood and adolescence consistency and relations to Spatial Thinking in adolescence
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 2020Co-Authors: Emily Grossnickle Peterson, David H Uttal, Adam B Weinberger, Bob Kolvoord, Adam E GreenAbstract:Prior research has revealed positive effects of Spatial activity participation (e.g., playing with blocks, sports) on current and future Spatial skills. However, research has not examined the degree to which Spatial activity participation remains stable over time, and little is known about how participating in Spatial activities at multiple points in development impacts Spatial Thinking. In this study, adolescents completed measures of Spatial Thinking and questionnaires assessing their current and previous participation in Spatial activities. Participation in childhood Spatial activities predicted adolescent Spatial activity participation, and the relation was stronger for females than for males. Adolescents’ current participation in Spatial activities predicted Spatial Thinking skills, whereas participation in childhood Spatial activities predicted adolescents’ Spatial habits of mind, even when accounting for factors such as gender and academic performance. No cumulative benefit was incurred due to participating in Spatial activities in both childhood and adolescence, and a lack of Spatial activities in childhood was not made up for by later Spatial activity participation. These findings reveal a consistently positive relationship in Spatial activity participation between childhood and adolescence. Results highlight the importance of participating in Spatial activities during childhood, and underscore the differential impact that participation in Spatial activities during childhood versus adolescence has on different facets of adolescents’ Spatial Thinking. Implications for the timing of interventions is discussed.
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situating space using a discipline focused lens to examine Spatial Thinking skills
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 2020Co-Authors: Kinnari Atit, David H Uttal, Mike StieffAbstract:Spatial skills are an important component of success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. A majority of what we know about Spatial skills today is a result of more than 100 years of research focused on understanding and identifying the kinds of skills that make up this skill set. Over the last two decades, the field has recognized that, unlike the Spatial skills measured by psychometric tests developed by psychology researchers, the Spatial problems faced by STEM experts vary widely and are multifaceted. Thus, many psychological researchers have embraced an interdisciplinary approach to studying Spatial Thinking with the aim of understanding the nature of this skill set as it occurs within STEM disciplines. In a parallel effort, discipline-based education researchers specializing in STEM domains have focused much of their research on understanding how to bolster students’ skills in completing domain-specific Spatial tasks. In this paper, we discuss four lessons learned from these two programs of research to enhance the field’s understanding of Spatial Thinking in STEM domains. We demonstrate each contribution by aligning findings from research on three distinct STEM disciplines: structural geology, surgery, and organic chemistry. Lastly, we discuss the potential implications of these contributions to STEM education.
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exploring and enhancing Spatial Thinking links to achievement in science technology engineering and mathematics
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2013Co-Authors: David H Uttal, David I Miller, Nora S NewcombeAbstract:Although neglected in traditional education, Spatial Thinking plays a critical role in achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. We review this relationship and investigate the malleability of Spatial Thinking. Can Spatial Thinking be improved with training, life experience, or educational interventions? Can improving Spatial Thinking improve STEM achievement? Research indicates that the answer is “yes” to both questions. A recent quantitative synthesis of 206 Spatial training studies found an average training improvement of 0.47 standard deviations. Training effects lasted for months in studies examining durability and transferred to tasks that differed at least moderately from training tasks. A few studies indicate that Spatial training can improve STEM learning, although more research needs to be done on this issue. We argue that including Spatial Thinking in STEM curricula could substantially increase the number of Americans with the requisite cognitive skills to ...
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Spatial Thinking and stem education when why and how
Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 2012Co-Authors: David H Uttal, Cheryl CohenAbstract:Abstract We explore the relation between Spatial Thinking and performance and attainment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) domains. Spatial skills strongly predict who will go into STEM fields. But why is this true? We argue that Spatial skills serve as a gateway or barrier for entry into STEM fields. We review literature that indicates that psychometrically-assessed Spatial abilities predict performance early in STEM learning, but become less predicative as students advance toward expertise. Experts often have mental representations that allow them to solve problems without having to use Spatial Thinking. For example, an expert chemist who knows a great deal about the structure and behavior of a particular molecule may not need to mentally rotate a representation of this molecule in order to make a decision about it. Novices who have low levels of Spatial skills may not be able to advance to the point at which Spatial skills become less important. Thus, a program of Spatial training might help to increase the number of people who go into STEM fields. We review and give examples of work on Spatial training, which show that Spatial abilities are quite malleable. Our chapter helps to constrain and specify when and how Spatial abilities do (or do not) matter in STEM Thinking and learning.
Mike Stieff - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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situating space using a discipline focused lens to examine Spatial Thinking skills
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 2020Co-Authors: Kinnari Atit, David H Uttal, Mike StieffAbstract:Spatial skills are an important component of success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. A majority of what we know about Spatial skills today is a result of more than 100 years of research focused on understanding and identifying the kinds of skills that make up this skill set. Over the last two decades, the field has recognized that, unlike the Spatial skills measured by psychometric tests developed by psychology researchers, the Spatial problems faced by STEM experts vary widely and are multifaceted. Thus, many psychological researchers have embraced an interdisciplinary approach to studying Spatial Thinking with the aim of understanding the nature of this skill set as it occurs within STEM disciplines. In a parallel effort, discipline-based education researchers specializing in STEM domains have focused much of their research on understanding how to bolster students’ skills in completing domain-specific Spatial tasks. In this paper, we discuss four lessons learned from these two programs of research to enhance the field’s understanding of Spatial Thinking in STEM domains. We demonstrate each contribution by aligning findings from research on three distinct STEM disciplines: structural geology, surgery, and organic chemistry. Lastly, we discuss the potential implications of these contributions to STEM education.
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visual chunking as a strategy for Spatial Thinking in stem
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 2020Co-Authors: Mike Stieff, Stephanie Werner, Dane Desutter, Steve Franconeri, Mary HegartyAbstract:Working memory capacity is known to predict the performance of novices and experts on a variety of tasks found in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). A common feature of STEM tasks is that they require the problem solver to encode and transform complex Spatial information depicted in disciplinary representations that seemingly exceed the known capacity limits of visuoSpatial working memory. Understanding these limits and how visuoSpatial information is encoded and transformed differently by STEM learners presents new avenues for addressing the challenges students face while navigating STEM classes and degree programs. Here, we describe two studies that explore student accuracy at detecting color changes in visual stimuli from the discipline of chemistry. We demonstrate that both naive and novice chemistry students' encoding of visuoSpatial information is affected by how information is visually structured in "chunks" prevalent across chemistry representations. In both studies we show that students are more accurate at detecting color changes within chemistry-relevant chunks compared to changes that occur outside of them, but performance was not affected by the dimensionality of the structure (2D vs 3D) or the presence of redundancies in the visual representation. These studies support the hypothesis that strategies for chunking the Spatial structure of information may be critical tools for transcending otherwise severely limited visuoSpatial capacity in the absence of expertise.
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gesture supports Spatial Thinking in stem
Cognition and Instruction, 2016Co-Authors: Mike Stieff, Matthew E Lira, Stephanie ScopelitisAbstract:ABSTRACTThe present article describes two studies that examine the impact of teaching students to use gesture to support Spatial Thinking in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) discipline of chemistry. In Study 1 we compared the effectiveness of instruction that involved either watching gesture, reproducing gesture, or reading text. The results indicate that students in the reproducing gesture condition produced significantly more gestures while problem solving than students in the other two groups and significantly outperformed the other groups on study measures. In Study 2 we compared the effectiveness of gesture to an instructional approach that involved manually handling concrete models without gesture. Students performed equally well in both conditions; however, students taught with concrete models performed significantly worse if concrete models were not available during assessment. These studies show that gesture is an effective strategy for supporting Spatial Thinking in S...
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six myths about Spatial Thinking
International Journal of Science Education, 2012Co-Authors: Nora S Newcombe, Mike StieffAbstract:Visualizations are an increasingly important part of scientific education and discovery. However, users often do not gain knowledge from them in a complete or efficient way. This article aims to direct research on visualizations in science education in productive directions by reviewing the evidence for widespread assumptions that learning styles, sex differences, developmental stages, and Spatial language determine the impact of visualizations on science learning. First, we examine the assumption that people differ in their verbal versus visual learning style. Due to the lack of rigorous evaluation, there is no current support for this distinction. Future research should distinguish between two different kinds of visual learning style. Second, we consider the belief that there are large and intractable sex differences in Spatial ability resultant from immutable biological reasons. Although there are some Spatial sex differences (in some types of Spatial tests although not all), there is actually only ver...
Robert S Bednarz - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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what improves Spatial Thinking evidence from the Spatial Thinking abilities test
International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 2019Co-Authors: Robert S Bednarz, Jongwon LeeAbstract:Geography educators have been, and continue to be, interested in Spatial Thinking, especially since they have been convinced of its importance in their students’ ability to learn and do geography. ...
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Spatial Thinking assists geographic Thinking evidence from a study exploring the effects of geoSpatial technology
Journal of Geography, 2017Co-Authors: Sandra Metoyer, Robert S BednarzAbstract:AbstractThis article provides a description and discussion of an exploratory research study that examined the effects of using geoSpatial technology (GST) on high school students’ Spatial skills and Spatial-relations content knowledge. It presents results that support the use of GST to teach Spatially dependent content. It also provides indication of an important link between Spatial Thinking and geographic Thinking. The article concludes with a discussion of how these results inform instructional strategies for the teaching of geography.
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Spatial Thinking in education concepts development and assessment
2015Co-Authors: Sandra Metoyer, Sarah Witham Bednarz, Robert S BednarzAbstract:Spatial Thinking has always been a fundamental cognitive skill for competency in geography. However, interest in it has increased in recent years as technological advances have driven political and societal changes producing a renewed awareness of its importance. This is especially true in the context of geoSpatial technologies (GST). The growth, expansion, and power of GST demands a citizenry with well-developed Spatial Thinking skills. But research exploring Spatial Thinking in an educational context is scant.
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development of critical Spatial Thinking through gis learning
Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 2013Co-Authors: Minsung Kim, Robert S BednarzAbstract:This study developed an interview-based critical Spatial Thinking oral test and used the test to investigate the effects of Geographic Information System (GIS) learning on three components of critical Spatial Thinking: evaluating data reliability, exercising Spatial reasoning, and assessing problem-solving validity. Thirty-two students at a large state university completed pre- and post-tests administered during the 2010 fall semester. This study found positive relationships between GIS learning and critical Spatial Thinking. We argue that the improvement can be attributed to students' experiences in a GIS course.
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components of Spatial Thinking evidence from a Spatial Thinking ability test
Journal of Geography, 2012Co-Authors: Jongwon Lee, Robert S BednarzAbstract:Abstract This article introduces the development and validation of the Spatial Thinking ability test (STAT). The STAT consists of sixteen multiple-choice questions of eight types. The STAT was validated by administering it to a sample of 532 junior high, high school, and university students. Factor analysis using principal components extraction was applied to identify underlying Spatial Thinking components and to evaluate the construct validity of the STAT. Spatial components identified through factor analysis only partly coincided with Spatial concepts used to develop the questions that compose the STAT and with the components of Spatial Thinking hypothesized by other researchers.
Sarah Witham Bednarz - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Spatial Thinking in education concepts development and assessment
2015Co-Authors: Sandra Metoyer, Sarah Witham Bednarz, Robert S BednarzAbstract:Spatial Thinking has always been a fundamental cognitive skill for competency in geography. However, interest in it has increased in recent years as technological advances have driven political and societal changes producing a renewed awareness of its importance. This is especially true in the context of geoSpatial technologies (GST). The growth, expansion, and power of GST demands a citizenry with well-developed Spatial Thinking skills. But research exploring Spatial Thinking in an educational context is scant.
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dispositions toward teaching Spatial Thinking through geography conceptualization and an exemplar assessment
Journal of Geography, 2014Co-Authors: Sarah Witham BednarzAbstract:ABSTRACTThe primary objectives of this article are: (1) to conceptualize teacher dispositions related to teaching Spatial Thinking in geography classrooms; and (2) to propose an exemplar assessment that can be used to prepare teachers who are disposed toward teaching Spatial Thinking through geography. A detailed description of the construction procedures and potential uses of the assessment are presented with suggestions for future research and applications.
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developing pre service teachers pedagogical content knowledge for teaching Spatial Thinking through geography
Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 2014Co-Authors: Sarah Witham BednarzAbstract:Twenty-four pre-service teachers participated in a workshop designed to provide explicit opportunities to learn what Spatial Thinking is and how to incorporate it into teaching practice. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) examine the educational effect of the workshop on pre-service teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and (2) provide geographers who prepare teachers in higher education with insights into effective ways to address PCK to teach Spatial Thinking in teacher preparation programs. The findings of this study indicate that explicit instruction in teaching Spatial Thinking is necessary and effective to develop pre-service teachers' PCK.
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textbook questions to support Spatial Thinking differences in Spatiality by question location
Journal of Geography, 2011Co-Authors: Sarah Witham BednarzAbstract:This study investigates the location and varying Spatiality of questions in geography textbooks. The results show that study questions posed in page margins address the three components of Spatial Thinking—concepts of space, using tools of representation, and processes of reasoning—more than questions in other locations within the text. Three practices are particularly recommended to help students develop Spatial Thinking skills through answering textbook questions: (1) utilize page-margin questions; (2) select questions around Spatial representations; and (3) focus on higher-level cognitive processes.
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selecting and designing questions to facilitate Spatial Thinking
The Geography Teacher, 2010Co-Authors: Sarah Witham Bednarz, Sandra MetoyerAbstract:One measure of the impact of a new idea in geography education is how well it is incorporated into teachers' everyday practice. Spatial Thinking is not really a new idea in geography education; spa...
