Understanding and Teaching Spatial Competence

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Spatial competence is a fundamental aspect of intelligence, important to successful functioning. A high level of spatial skill is critical to the achievement of a technologically sophisticated work force for the twenty-first century. Spatial intelligence plays a major role in effective education in mathematics, science and engineering. The interdisciplinary research we will carry out focuses on understanding of spatial intelligence and establishing methods for maximizing the development of spatial skills. We will study spatial competence at different levels of analysis. At the biological level, we will will investigate the neurological foundations for spatial growth. We will examine the growth and organization of neural connections in areas of the brain that underlie the processing of spatial information. At the behavioral level, we will investigate the mechanisms that are involved in the mental representation of the spatial aspects of the world. We also will study the ways in which children come to understand spatial symbols such as maps and models. We will study how acquisition of these symbol systems affects the development of spatial intelligence. This work will include computational modelling of spatial intelligence. Finally, at the level of educational application, we will investigate the educational input responsible for the differential gains in spatial skill levels children achieve in school. We plan to identify specific teacher practices that are associated with high gains in student achievement. Our research team has expertise in a variety of relevant fields, including neural science, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology,computer science, education, and statistics. This research team has worked together for the past three years on research that has identified core elements of spatial functioning. Our goal now is to further our understanding of how the development of spatial competence can be enhanced .M