Browsing by Subject "spatial cognition"

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    Exploring Space: Examining Spatial Cognitive Processes Recruited by Students and Teachers in Naturalistic Social Interaction Throughout a Summer Elementary School Engineering Unit
    (2024-05) Valerie, Jesslyn
    Spatial reasoning skills are a great predictor of students’ Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) achievement and attainment. However, researchers have mainly viewed spatial reasoning skills as an internal cognitive process that is measured through the administration of psychometric testing and laboratory experiments. Further, while spatial reasoning is focal in shaping one’s thinking and learning in an engineering context, there is a lack of understanding of how and when spatial thinking is useful in K-12 engineering classrooms. This dissertation extends the current understanding of spatial thinking by examining how various cognitive resources and material resources are utilized, discussed, and enacted by elementary school students and their instructors to support one’s engagement in spatial reasoning. The current study collected data from a three-week summer learning program, with one week dedicated to engineering units. During the space and aviation week of the summer program, students worked collaboratively in groups of two to four students to create two Alka-Seltzer rocket ships. The researcher chose a collaborative learning environment for the study to observe how spatial reasoning processes occur in the context of social interaction. The study utilizes an interaction analysis method to analyze moment-by-moment social interaction and object representations that took place in student-to-student and students-to-teacher interactions. This study provides a qualitative account that examines spatial reasoning in naturalistic social interaction to extend the understanding of how spatial reasoning is useful in K-12 engineering education. In addition, this dissertation provides an understanding of how various material resources are effective in cultivating various spatial reasoning processes. The results of the study showcase ten different spatial cognitive processes that are observable through social interactions. Students and teachers utilized a plethora of spatial cognitive processes throughout the engineering unit and at varying stages of the engineering design process. The study demonstrates that, as the activity progressed, students’ engagement in spatial cognitive processes shifted. Complex challenges that arose during the engineering activity pushed students to come up with creative solutions by calling upon a wide array of spatial cognitive processes. While the timeframe of the activity was short, the study was able to demonstrate nuanced development in students’ spatial reasoning through social interaction. Finally, while engaging in spatial cognitive processes, students also drew upon various material resources to assist them. The study found that different materials possess unique spatial properties and elicit different types of spatial cognitive processes.
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    Supporting Middle School Students’ Spatial Skills Through Rubik’S Cube Play
    (2020-05) Valerie, Jesslyn
    Spatial skills are a strong predictor of students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) achievement. The present study uses a quasi-experimental design to address three research objectives focusing on the development of spatial skills; specifically, mental rotation. This study’s first research objective examines if learning to solve the Rubik’s Cube improves eighth-grade students’ two- and three-dimensional mental rotation performance. The second objective explores if there are differences between male students’ and female students’ mental rotation performance. Finally, the Need for Cognition Scale is utilized to determine whether motivation, enjoyment, and effort in cognitive endeavors can predict the change in students’ mental rotation performance from pretest to posttest. This study’s findings show that eighth-grade students’ who participated in the Rubik’s Cube training interventions significantly improved on measures of two- and three-dimensional mental rotation. Students’ scores on the Need for Cognition Scale predicted the degree to which their two-dimensional mental rotation skills improved. This study’s results suggest that students’ motivation for critical thinking and reasoning predicts their capacity to learn from spatial training experiences. Overall, these findings contribute to the literature that spatial skills are malleable.