Assessing children's spatial thinking: Insights, challenges, and implications.

In the past few decades, interest in children's spatial thinking has increased substantially, and consequently, interest in spatial assessments for children has also increased. However, there are not many reliable, validated, and widely accessible spatial assessments for this segment of the population, which affects researchers' ability to conduct and interpret spatial thinking research. While some limitations of these tests relate to broader issues with spatial assessments in general (see Uttal et al.

What makes online teaching spatial? Examining the connections between K-12 teachers' spatial skills, affect, and their use of spatial pedagogy during remote instruction.

Spatial skills are critical for student success in K-12 STEM education. Teachers' spatial skills and feelings about completing spatial tasks influence students' spatial and STEM learning at both the primary and secondary levels. However, whether spatial skills and spatial anxiety differ or not between these two teacher levels is unknown.

Examining the relations between spatial skills and mathematical performance: A meta-analysis.

Much recent research has focused on the relation between spatial skills and mathematical skills, which has resulted in widely reported links between these two skill sets. However, the magnitude of this relation is unclear. Furthermore, it is of interest whether this relation differs in size based on key demographic variables, such as gender and grade-level, and the extent to which this relation can be accounted for by shared domain-general reasoning skills across the two domains.

Situating space: using a discipline-focused lens to examine spatial thinking skills.

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.

Learning to interpret topographic maps: Understanding layered spatial information.

Novices struggle to interpret maps that show information about continuous dimensions (typically latitude and longitude) layered with information that is inherently continuous but segmented categorically. An example is a topographic map, used in earth science disciplines as well as by hikers, emergency rescue operations, and other endeavors requiring knowledge of terrain. Successful comprehension requires understanding that continuous elevation information is categorically encoded using contour lines, as well as skill in visualizing the three-dimensional shape of the terrain from the contour lines.

Comprehending 3D Diagrams: Sketching to Support Spatial Reasoning.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines commonly illustrate 3D relationships in diagrams, yet these are often challenging for students. Failing to understand diagrams can hinder success in STEM because scientific practice requires understanding and creating diagrammatic representations. We explore a new approach to improving student understanding of diagrams that convey 3D relations that is based on students generating their own predictive diagrams.

Twisting space: are rigid and non-rigid mental transformations separate spatial skills?

Cognitive science has primarily studied the mental simulation of spatial transformations with tests that focus on rigid transformations (e.g., mental rotation).