Abstract
Spatial thinking permeates much of our lives and is an asset when solving problems involving well-structured visual information or imagining solutions in physical or digital space. However, an estimated three million US school children have spatial talents that go unrecognized because of the tools commonly used for identification of academic talent. For decades, educational and psychological research has explored the range of spatial thinking skills that are demanded by many career fields, including science, engineering, and mathematics. Spatial thinking has been found to be particularly important to early mathematical thinking. In this article, we explore what spatial thinking entails, where it is important in the curriculum, and how we can begin to develop spatial literacy and identify spatial talents in our K-12 classrooms.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 170-177 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Gifted Child Today |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2024 |
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Institute of Education Sciences (R305A210428).
Keywords
- characteristics
- spatial thinking
- talent development
- underserved populations
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Developmental and Educational Psychology