Spatial Aptitude as Expertise; A Training Study

Journal of Baltic Science Education, 2018

This research attempted to find whether spatial intelligence (without context) has a correlation to (contextual) spatial ability and affects geographic skills as crystallized ability (Gc). It employed the descriptive method with subjects including students at the primary, junior high, and senior high schools. The data were collected through two instruments, namely test and questionnaire. Data of test results were processed by tabulation technique and correlated for the scores of spatial intelligence, spatial ability, and geographic skills. The results show that spatial intelligence (Gf) tended to increase from the level of primary to junior high and to senior high school level, whereas spatial ability (Gc) and geographic skills (Geo-s) tended to decrease. Despite the decline, all three (Gf, Gc, and Geo-s) had the potentials for improvement. Thus, geography teachers are encouraged to participate in improving students’ spatial and geographic skills, so students can develop their poten...

Group 2 12 Machining, 2019

The European Proceedings of Educational Sciences

Spatial ability (SA) refers to the ability to generate, retain and manipulate abstract visual images. From 1880 to 1940 SA was gradually understood and defined as an independent, unique ability and justly included as one of Gardner's types of intelligences. Later, Maier improved Gardner's model by distinguishing between five types of spatial abilities and intelligence: Spatial perception, Visualization, Mental rotation, Spatial relations and Spatial orientation. During the 70's and 80's the developmental attributes of the term were addressed. Those studies wished to understand how and when SA develops and naturally were directed mostly at children as subjects. Those studies revealed that SA is an essential ability to the development of mathematical skills. Later developmental studies addressed adult SA development and accordingly found that SA was a predictor of success in STEM fields of academic studies. Furthermore, during those years psychometric studies started to develop standardized tests to measure SA. Starting from the 80's and up to now, a great deal of research is being directed at technology and the way it influences SA development. These studies direct special attention at studying how new technologies such as computer games and VR affect SA measuring and training. The current research wishes to continue the rich tradition of this field of studies and draws attention to first year engineering and architecture students. It seeks to investigate how to best train their SA and the way this training will influence future achievements on both fields.

European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education

Journal of Environmental Psychology, 1986

This study examined the relationships between four standardized measures of spatial ability-the Embedded Figures Test (EFT), the Mental Rotations Test (MRT), the Differential Aptitude Spatial Relations subtest (DAT), and the Building Memory Test (BMT)-and two measures of environmental knowledge. Three hundred and fifty-three college undergraduates were administered the EFT, MRT, DAT, BMT and two measures of environmental knowledge-a landmark location (LM) and route knowledge (RK) task. The two environmental knowledge tasks were based on a slide-simulated walk through an unfamiliar urban environment. A principal components analysis of the above six measures produced two factors; one consisting of the four spatial ability tests, and the other the two environmental knowledge tasks. The correlation between the two factors was 0.37, indicating that the spatial ability factor accounted for 13.69% of the variance in the environmental knowledge factor.

Urbani izziv, 2010

As a result of scientific and technical progress, as well as the increasing complexity of social processes, there is a need for interdisciplinarity of knowledge, skills and competencies for individuals working in spatial planning. The process of spatial planning requires professional and scientific knowledge from various fields, some more artistically oriented and others related to sociology, engineering and technical studies, and economic and legal studies. Individuals must add to the knowledge obtained during the formal education process with new skills and competences to successfully perform their work. We conducted a survey among experts responsible for spatial planning in Slovenia, with the purpose of recognising these new skills and competences and determining their importance. The results of the survey offer insight into the various fields that experts should be familiar with, their specific competences, innate versus learned skills, and problems they deal with at the workplace. We can only expect to find successful solutions to such problems by studying them with other disciplines. Knowledge and information often emerge from peripheral fields of science that enable the formation of new expert and scientific solutions.

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2000

Spatial intelligence is deeply related to success in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and math) yet teachers are unaware of the concept. This paper reports on a teacher, researcher, and designer collaboration focused on translating research shown to improve spatial thinking practice. This translation is supported through a spatial " toolkit " of activities designed to raise teachers' spatial intelligence awareness and improve spatial thinking practice.