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Spatial Thinking Assessment

Spatial Thinking Assessment . An Invitation to Participate SEAGA 2012 Robert Bednarz Texas A&M University College Station, Texas, USA Jongwon Lee Ewha Womans University Seoul, South Korea. Outline. What is spatial thinking? Importance of Spatial Thinking

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Spatial Thinking Assessment

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  1. Spatial Thinking Assessment An Invitation to Participate SEAGA 2012 Robert Bednarz Texas A&M University College Station, Texas, USA Jongwon Lee EwhaWomans University Seoul, South Korea

  2. Outline • What is spatial thinking? • Importance of Spatial Thinking • Spatial Thinking vs Spatial Ability • Assessing Spatial Thinking (STAT) • Use STAT and Contribute to the Data Base

  3. Spatial Thinking Defined National Research Council’s Learning to Think Spatially offers a new conceptualization

  4. Knowledge, skills, and habits of mind Spatial Thinking • To use • Concepts of space • Tools of representation • Processes of reasoning To structure problems, find answers, and express solutions to these problems.

  5. Outline • What is spatial thinking? • Importance of Spatial Thinking • Spatial Thinking vs Spatial Ability • Assessing Spatial Thinking (STAT) • Use STAT and Contribute to the Data Base

  6. Importance of Spatial Thinking • Geography • One of two perspectives mentioned by both the National Geography Standards: Geography for life • One of two enduring themes of academic geography identified by Turner in “Contested identities: human-environment geography and disciplinary implications in a restructuring academy

  7. Importance of Spatial Thinking • Geo-spatial technology (GST) • Importance of “representations” noted in Learning to Think Spatially • Recognition of the role GIS can play as a support system for spatial thinking • Necessity for spatial thinking to exploit the advantages of GST • Growing opportunities in the workforce

  8. Importance of Spatial Thinking • Science and other disciplines • Crick and Watson’s model of the structure of DNA as a double-helix • Inferring subsurface structures from surficial features and interpreting seismic diagrams by geoscientists • Using graphical analysis to handle the ever-growing volume of data

  9. Outline • What is spatial thinking? • Importance of Spatial Thinking • Spatial Thinking vs Spatial Ability • Assessing Spatial Thinking (STAT) • Use STAT and Contribute to the Data Base

  10. Spatial Thinking vs Spatial Ability • Ability • Visualization • Rotation • Perspective • Table-top scale • Timed tests

  11. Spatial Ability • Little correlation between visualization and rotation and geography-relevant tasks • Navigation, performance in geography, GIS or cartography • Researchers began to argue for a broadening of spatial abilities

  12. Ability Augmented • Spatial relations proposed • Patterns, correlation, way finding, overlaying, distributions, sketch mapping • Definition remains controversial

  13. Spatial Thinking • An amalgam • Concepts (knowledge) • Tools (spatial representations) • Reasoning (ways of thinking) • More inclusive (identifying spatial patterns, distributions, and correlation; way finding; and sketch mapping) • Scale

  14. Outline • What is spatial thinking? • Importance of Spatial Thinking • Spatial Thinking vs Spatial Ability • Assessing Spatial Thinking (STAT) • Use STAT and Contribute to the Data Base

  15. Spatial Thinking Assessment • Measuring skills beyond visualization and perspective • Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT)

  16. STAT • Two equivalent forms • Sixteen multiple-choice questions • Both hard-copy and digital versions

  17. Impact of Teacher Training • Impact of Teachers’ Guide to Modern Geography • Introduction of spatial thinking skills into classrooms • Teachers showed significant improvement

  18. Impact of GIS Learning

  19. Components of Spatial Thinking

  20. Components of Spatial Thinking • Students at all levels found the same questions easy or challenging

  21. Components of Spatial Thinking • Factor Analysis • Six factors were identified • Little support for the hypothesized components • Three of four questions grouping on the first factor are related to map visualization and overlay • Four on the second concern point, line, and area symbols • Discerning patterns and performing boolean operations characterize the third • The final two are determined by single questions

  22. Outline • What is spatial thinking? • Importance of Spatial Thinking • Spatial Thinking vs Spatial Ability • Assessing Spatial Thinking (STAT) • Use STAT and Contribute to the Data Base

  23. Contribute to the Data Base • Free access • Paper or digital • Internationally administered • Great Britain, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Germany • Share your results • Gender • Culture • Education

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