Spatial Thinking: a powerful tool for educators to empower youth, improve society, and change the world

Autores

  • Sarah Witham Bednarz Texas A&M University

Palavras-chave:

spatial thinking, spatial citizenship, learning progressions, geography education

Resumo

This paper argues that spatial thinking can effect positive change in individuals and society. Spatial thinking plays a role in shaping young people’s capacities to learn and to function in society and thus is valuable enough that it should be explicitly taught to learners beginning at very young ages. Spatial thinking, supported by maps and geospatial technologies as appropriate, can be used to create active, participatory, and emancipated youth engaged in spatial citizenship. Modern society will benefit from a spatially literate population with an enhanced understanding of the world as seen through the key concepts of geography: space, place, scale, power, and human-environment relationships. Critical geography education must have the goal of teaching for a better, more just world.

Referências

Anderson, R. C. (1983). Geography’s role in promoting global citizenship. NASSA Bulletin, 67, 80-83.

Baker, T. R., Battersby, S., Bednarz, S. W., Bodzin, A. M., Kolvoord, B., Moore, S., Sinton, D., & Uttal, D. (2015). A research agenda for geospatial technologies and learning. Journal of Geography, 114(3), 118-130.

Bednarz, S.W., Jo, I., & Shin, E. (forthcoming) Spatial thinking in primary geography, In D. Schmeink and G. Kidman (eds) Setting the Foundation: Big Ideas in Teaching Primary Geography, Springer.

Bednarz, S.W., Heffron, S.M., & Huynh, N.T. (2013). A Roadmap for 21st Century Geography Education: Geography Education Research. Washington D.C.: Association of American Geographers.

Borriello, G.A., & Liben, L.S. Encouraging maternal guidance of preschoolers spatial thinking during block play. Child Development, doi:10.1111/cdev.12779

Burte, H., Gardony, A. L., Hutton, A., & Taylor, H. A. (2017). Think3d!: Improving mathematics learning through embodied spatial training. Cognitive Research, 2(1), 13. http://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0052-9

Cheng, Y. L., & Mix, K. S. (2014). Spatial training improves children's mathematics ability. Journal of Cognition and Development, 15(1), 2-11.

Cohrssen, C., Quadros-Wander, B, Page, J., & Klarin, S. (2017). Between the big trees: A project based approach to investigating shape and spatial thinking in a kindergarten program. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 42(1):94-104.

Cole, M., Wilhelm, J., & Yang, H. (2015). Student-moon observations and spatial-scientific reasoning. International Journal of Science Education, 37(11):1815-1833.

Downs, R.M. (2014). Coming of age in the geospatial revolution: The geographic self re-defined. Human Development 57, 35–57.

Farran, E.K., & Atkinson, L. (2016). The development of spatial category representations from 4 to 7 years. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 34:555-568.

Geist, E. (2016). Let's make a map: The developmental stages of children's mapmaking. YC Young Children, 71(2), 50.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (2014). How gesture works to change our minds. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/jtine.2014.01.002

Goldin-Meadow, S. (2015). Gesture and cognitive development. In L. S. Liben & U. Müller (Eds.), Cognitive processes. Volume 2 of the Handbook of child psychology and developmental science (7th ed.). Editor-in-Chief: R. M. Lerner. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Gordon, E, Elwood, S. & Mitchell, K. (2016) Critical spatial learning: participatory mapping, spatial histories, and youth civic engagement, Children's Geographies, 14:5, 558-572, DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2015.1136736

Grotzer, T. A., & Solis, S. L. (2015). Action at an attentional distance: A study of children's reasoning about causes and effects involving spatial and attentional discontinuity. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 52(7), 1003-1030.

Haggett, P. (1990). The Geographer’s Art. Oxford: Blackwell.

Hawes, Z., LeFevre, J.-A., Xu, C. & Bruce, C. D. (2015), Mental rotation with tangible three-dimensional objects: A new measure sensitive to developmental differences in 4- to 8-Year-old children. Mind, Brain, and Education, 9: 10–18. doi:10.1111/mbe.12051

Heffron, S.M. & Downs, R.M. (2012). Geography for life: National geography standards. Washington D.C.: National Council for Geographic Education.

Hegarty, M. (2010). Components of spatial intelligence. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The Psychology of

Learning and Motivation, Vol. 52, pp. 265–297. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Huynh, N. T., Solem, M., & Bednarz, S. W. (2015). A road map for learning progressions research in geography. Journal of Geography, 114(2), 69-79.

Jirout, J. J., & Newcombe, N. S. (2015). Building blocks for developing spatial skills: Evidence from a large, representative US sample. Psychological Science, 26(3), 302-310.

Jo, I. & Bednarz, S.W. (2009) Evaluating Geography Textbook Questions from a Spatial Perspective: Using Concepts of Space, Tools of Representation, and Cognitive Processes to Evaluate Spatiality, Journal of Geography, 108:1, 4-13, DOI: 10.1080/00221340902758401

Kim, M. & Bednarz, R. (2013) Effects of a GIS course on self-assessment of Spatial Habits of Mind (SHOM), Journal of Geography, 112:4, 165-177, DOI: 10.1080/00221341.2012.684356

Kozhevnikov, M., Kosslyn, S., & Shephard, J. (2005). Spatial versus object visualizers: A new characterization of visual cognitive style. Memory & Cognition, 33(4), 710–726. doi:10.3758/BF03195337

Liben, L. S. (2006). Education for spatial thinking. In K. A. Renninger & I. E. Sigel (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 4, 6th ed., pp. 197–247). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. doi:10.1002/9780470147658.chpsy0406

Linn, M. C., & Petersen, A. C. (1985). Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 1479-1498.

Mayes, E., Mitra, D.L., and Serriere S.C. (2016). Figuring world of citizenship: Examining differences made in “making a difference” in an elementary school classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 53(3), 605-638.

Marcinowski, E. C., & Campbell, J. M. (2017). Building on what you have learned: Object construction skill during infancy predicts the comprehension of spatial relations words. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 41(3), 341-349.

National Research Council Committee on Spatial Thinking (2006). Learning to Think Spatially. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press.

Ness, D., & Farenga, S. J. (2016). Blocks, bricks, and planks: relationships between affordance and visuo-spatial constructive play objects. American Journal of Play, 8(2), 201.

Newcombe, N. (2016). Thinking spatially in the science classroom. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 10:1-6.

Resnick, I., Verdine, B.N., Golinkoff, R., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2016). Geometric toys in the attic? Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36:358-365.

Schlemper, M.B., Stewart, V.C., Shetty, S. & Czajkowski, K. (2018) Including students geographies in geography education: Spatial narratives, citizen mapping, and social justice. Theory and Research in Social Education, DOI 10.1080/00933104.2018.1427164

Schulze, U., Gryl, I., & Kanwischer, D. (2014). Spatial citizenship: Creating a curriculum for teacher education. In GI_Forum Conference Proceedings doi: 10.1553/giscience2014s230

Sinton, D.S. (2011). Spatial thinking. In 21st Century Geography: A Reference Handbook, ed. J. Stoltman, pp 733-744. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Stoltman, J.P. (1990). Geography education for citizenship. Boulder, CO: Social Science Education Consortium.

Uttal, D.H. (2000). Seeing the big picture: Map use and the development of spatial cognition. Geospatial technology competency model. Developmental Science 3(3), 247-264.

Uttal, D.H. (2005). Spatial symbols and spatial thought: Cross cultural, developmental, and historical perspectives on the relation between map use and spatial cognition. In L. Namy (Ed.) Symbol use and symbolic representation: Developmental and comparative perspectives (pp 2-23). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Uttal, D. H., & Cohen, C. A. (2012). 4 Spatial Thinking and STEM Education: When, Why, and How?. Psychology of learning and motivation-Advances in research and theory, 57, 147.

Uttal, D.H., Meadow, N.G., Tipton, E., Hand, L.L., Alden, A.R., Warren, C. & Newcombe, N. (2013). The malleability of spatial skills; A meta-analysis of training studies. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2): 352-402.

Wai, J., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2009). Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(4), 817–835. doi:10.1037/a0016127

Wade, R. (2001). Global citizenship: choices and change. In D. Lambert & P. Machon (Eds.), Citizenship through secondary geography (pp. 161-181). London, UK: Routledge Falmer.

Watts, R.J., and Flanagan, C. (2007). Pushing the envelope on youth civic engagement: A developmental, and liberation psychology perspective. Journal of Community Psychology, 35(6), 779-792.

Westheimer, J.. & Kahne, J. (2004) What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237-269.

Williams, M. (2001). Citizenship and democracy education: Geography’s place, an international perspective. In D. Lambert & P. Machon (Eds.), Citizenship through secondary geography (pp.31-41). London, UK: Routledge Falmer

Downloads

Publicado

2018-07-07

Como Citar

Bednarz, S. W. (2018). Spatial Thinking: a powerful tool for educators to empower youth, improve society, and change the world. Boletim Paulista De Geografia, 99, 1–20. Recuperado de https://publicacoes.agb.org.br/boletim-paulista/article/view/1458