TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial foundations of science education
T2 - The illustrative case of instruction on introductory geological concepts
AU - Liben, Lynn S.
AU - Kastens, Kim A.
AU - Christensen, Adam E.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported here was funded by the National Science Foundation in grants to Liben and Kastens (REC04-11686 and REC04-11823, respectively). All opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and no endorsement from the National Science Foundation should be inferred. This is Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Contribution No. 7418. Portions of this research were presented at meetings of the Association for Psychological Science, New York; American Educational Research Association, New York; National Science Foundation, Arlington; Geological Society of America, Philadelphia; and the Workshop on Spatial Cognition, Evanston. The authors thank Linda Pistolesi for preparing the figures; Eva Pell, Rodney Erikson, and the Office of Physical Plant for facilitating the outcrop installation at Penn State; John Sindt of the Lamont-Doherty Instrument Shop, for machining the models for the laboratory tasks; the Penn State Cognitive and Social Development lab—especially Kevin Fomalont, Michael Kilcoyne, and Hillary O’Neill—for their dedicated work in data collection, scoring, and entry; Hoben Thomas for his expert consultation on statistical analyses; and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and thought-provoking comments.
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - To study the role of spatial concepts in science learning, 125 college students with high, medium, or low scores on a horizontality (water-level) spatial task were given information about geological strike and dip using existing educational materials. Participants mapped an outcrop's strike and dip, a rod's orientation, pointed to a distant building and north, and completed 3-dimensional horizontality and verticality tasks. Many students, particularly those with low water-level scores, experienced difficulty on both field and laboratory tasks and failed to use good field-observation strategies. Error patterns implicated roles of cognitive regularization of the environment, embodied spatial cognition, and map experience. Data relating performance to participants' spatial skills, gender, self-reported confidence in responses, spatial awareness, and strategy use suggest a range of instructional approaches.
AB - To study the role of spatial concepts in science learning, 125 college students with high, medium, or low scores on a horizontality (water-level) spatial task were given information about geological strike and dip using existing educational materials. Participants mapped an outcrop's strike and dip, a rod's orientation, pointed to a distant building and north, and completed 3-dimensional horizontality and verticality tasks. Many students, particularly those with low water-level scores, experienced difficulty on both field and laboratory tasks and failed to use good field-observation strategies. Error patterns implicated roles of cognitive regularization of the environment, embodied spatial cognition, and map experience. Data relating performance to participants' spatial skills, gender, self-reported confidence in responses, spatial awareness, and strategy use suggest a range of instructional approaches.
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U2 - 10.1080/07370008.2010.533596
DO - 10.1080/07370008.2010.533596
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:78651329720
SN - 0737-0008
VL - 29
SP - 45
EP - 87
JO - Cognition and Instruction
JF - Cognition and Instruction
IS - 1
ER -