1. Increasing Spatial Learning in Formal and Informal Settings
Nora S. Newcombe
Temple University
and
Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center 1

2. Overview
Spatial intelligence and learning are important in scientific thought and communication
Spatial intelligence and learning can be improved
Specific educational techniques to foster spatial intelligence are within our grasp
Parents and teachers of young children should engage them in spatial play and talk
Teachers in middle and high school should teach diagram reading skills 2

3. Importance in Scientific Thought and Communication3

4. Predicting Occupations from High School Spatial Ability Wai, Lubinski & Benbow (2009)
Standardized Score

5. New Meta-Analysis Supports Malleability
Large training effects, as well as durability and transfer
Uttal, Meadow, Hand, Lewis, Warren, & Newcombe, under review 5

6. Putting These Two Analyses Together6

7. Focus on Early Education
Teachers and parents need to know what spatial thinking is, and that it’s important
Teachers and parents need to avoid spatial anxiety
How should we best enhance spatial learning in children?
Importance of gesture
Usefulness of analogy
Importance of spatial language
Play
Puzzle play
Paper folding
Block play 7

8. Spatial Books and Poems
OUT, ABOUT, AND ALL AROUND
(A VERY SPATIAL DAY)
Julie Dillemuth
My day begins getting UP out of bed
Daddy puts ON my clothes, OVER my head.
Then DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN all of the stairs
TO the kitchen for breakfast - bananas and pears!
ZOOM
Szechter & Liben (2004) 8

9. Language in Block Play Contexts Ferrara, Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, Lam & Newcombe (2011), Mind, Brain and Education
Pre-assembled Play
Free Play
Guided Play 9

10. Parental Spatial Language in Four Contexts Ferrara, Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, Lam & Newcombe (2011), Mind, Brain and Education 10

11. Teaching Geometric Shapes Fisher, Hirsh-Pasek, Newcombe & Golinkoff (under review)
Children often see only typical shapes
Showing a range of shapes helps, especially in a guided play context

12. Preschoolers Benefit from Visualization Joh, Jaswal & Keen, 2011
Preschoolers asked to visualize how a ball goes through a tube avoid the “straight down” or gravity error

13. Learning from Visualizations
Two strategies
Modify the learner
Modify the learning materials
Supported by meta-analysis (Hoffler, 2010, Ed. Psych. Review)
spatial ability plays an important role in learning from visualizations (mean effect size r  = 0.34), but is moderated by—at least—two compensating factors; learners with low spatial ability can be significantly supported by a dynamic visualization as well as a 3d-visualization.

14. Visual Representations in Science Textbooks
Diagrams
Photographs
Photomicrographs
Flow charts
Tables
Graphs
Would the beam still follow the same path when the plates are charged?
What happens to the beam when the plates are charged?

15. Prior Research
People have difficulty comprehending diagrams accurately
Seductive details (Canham & Hegarty, in press)
Misinterpret features (Faraday & Sutcliffe, 1996)
Diagram comprehension is affected by
Spatial ability (Florax & Ploetzner, in press)
Working memory (Sanchez & Wiley, 2006)
Topic knowledge (Schwonke et al., in press)
Level of self-explanation (Kastens & Liben, 2007)

16. Can We Teach HS Biology Students to Reason Better with Diagrams?
Developing curriculum for teaching diagrammatic reasoning based on four different interventions
Conventions of diagrams (COD)
Coordinating text and diagrams (CTD)
Self-explanation (SE)
Student-constructed diagrams (SCD)

17. COD: Posttest Diagrammatic Reasoning
Beginning of year achievement as covariate
Significant time * treatment interaction
d =.8 treatment, .2 control

18. Changes in Eye Tracking
Workbook students significantly increase time spent on the diagram, significantly more so than Demonstration students
Workbook students maintain time spent on naming and explanatory labels, whereas Demonstration students show significant decrease

19. How Do We Further Improve Student Comprehension of Diagrams
How Do We Further Improve Student Comprehension of Diagrams? Cromley, Bergey, Fitzhugh, Newcombe, Wills, Shipley, and Tanaka (under review)
We compared Self-Explanation with Student-Completed Figures—Visual and Student-Completed Figures—Verbal
Assessed effects (pre- to posttest) on
Biology knowledge
Biology diagram comprehension—literal
Biology diagram comprehension—inferential
Geoscience diagram comprehension
Teacher-delivered in 9th grade biology classes

20. Self-Explanation
Eu-Squeak-a! If there are four off- spring, there will be one of each combination. But what will the fifth one be like?

21. Student Completed Figures-Verbal

22. Student Completed Figures-Visual

23. Results: Biology Diagrams
d = 0.30* d = 0.32* d = 0.22*

24. Results: Biology Knowledge
d = 0.63* d = d = 0.68*

25. Results: Geoscience Diagrams
d = 0.37* d ~ d = 0.28*

26. Questions? 26

27. Most Spatial Tests Emphasize Intrinsic Spatial Relations27