You can improve your spatial skills with training: study

Do you marvel at your friends' ability to assemble complex IKEA furniture and navigate a new city, or do you completely miss your spatial skills? Do not worry! A new study conducted by CIRES has shown that you too can improve your spatial reasoning with practice.

Spatial reasoning skills are essential in many scientific disciplines, from archeology to engineering of the environment. And the authors of the new study, published today in the International Journal of Science Education, hypothesize that providing formal spatial training opportunities to undergraduate students could increase the number of successful students in geoscience careers.

"Space skills are essential in geoscience," said Anne Gold, lead author of the study and director of the CIRES Education & Outreach program. "Reading a topographic map, understanding how erosion sculpts landscapes or how elements are arranged in a mineral require spatial visualization and reasoning."

For the new work, the team provided training exercises to 326 undergraduate students enrolled in geology courses at CU Boulder in 2014 and 2015. Students followed brief, practical, weekly weekly practical modules. , focused on specific and discrete spatial competences.

The online training included exercises such as the mental rotation of geometric figures or the imagination of the shapes resulting from the cutting of an airplane through different objects. Practical activities included building and drawing block figures and cutting geometric shapes made of modeling clay. A group of 266 students served as a control group without any training.

After one semester, 70% of the students trained increased their spatial skills, obtaining better results during a written assessment compared to a pre-training assessment and compared to students who did not participate in the training. .

During a reflection survey, half of the trained students reported feeling that their spatial thinking skills had improved and more than a third felt that the training had allowed them to to improve their performance in other science courses.

The study builds on previous work by the research team showing that young adults playing with construction toys such as Legos or with certain types of spatially demanding video games, have outperformed their peers in spatial reasoning tests.

"At any age, from childhood to college, and even beyond, it's possible to sculpt your spatial skills," Gold said. "It's never too late."

The inclusion of space training in schools could increase the number of students who would choose and succeed in geoscience, Gold said. And the students involved in the new evaluation have also identified personal benefits.

"Modules have forced me to change my point of view on the subject I was observing, which is a valuable skill," said one of the students participating in a survey of reflection. "It challenged my brain to work in complex ways, which would not be otherwise," said another.

Explore further:
Spatial skills are higher among those who played with construction toys and video games as children: study

More information:
Anne U. Gold et al, Improving Spatial Thinking Skills in Geology Undergraduates Through Short On-line Training Exercises International Journal of Science Education (2018). DOI: 10.1080 / 09500693.2018.1525621