Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance.

Abstract

The importance of spatial ability in educational pursuits and the world of work was examined, with particular attention devoted to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) domains. Participants were drawn from a stratified random sample of U.S. high schools (Grades 9 -12, N ϭ 400,000) and were tracked for 11ϩ years; their longitudinal findings were aligned with pre-1957 findings and with contemporary data from the Graduate Record Examination and the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth. For decades, spatial ability assessed during adolescence has surfaced as a salient psychological attribute among those adolescents who subsequently go on to achieve advanced educational credentials and occupations in STEM. Results solidify the generalization that spatial ability plays a critical role in developing expertise in STEM and suggest, among other things, that including spatial ability in modern talent searches would identify many adolescents with potential for STEM who are currently being missed.

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on a Video Case of Children Designing and Coding for Robotics

“…After all, as exemplified in the work of Wai et al (2009), the link between spatial reasoning and STEM-related careers has been well established. On the other hand, however, there would seem no reason to expect that professionals would be inclined to highlight such elements, given the unlikeliness that spatial reasoning skills would have been a significant or explicit part of their formal education.…”

“…Wai et al (2009) noted that business is one discipline that high school students with lower spatial reasoning tend to choose. Individuals with poorly developed spatial reasoning skills might be less able to recognize others using these skills.…”

“…Informed by Wai, Lubinski, and Benbow's (2009) longitudinal study of the relationship between the spatial reasoning abilities and career outcomes, we identified career categories that are associated with a range of spatial abilities. We then looked across our respective social networks to populate these categories and sent out personal invitations to watch the video and reply to three questions: (a) What skills are the students using?…”

“…This realization has particular relevance to educators, with mounting evidence that spatial reasoning competencies are correlated with achievement (Casey, Dearing, Vasilyeva, Ganley, & Tine, 2011;Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009) and are malleable (Sorby, 2009;Uttal et al, 2013) and that learning experiences in the early years are of extreme importance (Bruce & Hawes, 2015;Hawes, Tepylo, & Moss, 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/./), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.…”

Using a touch screen paradigm to assess the development of mental rotation between 3½ and 5½ years of age

“…Future research should aim to find out more about the development of this spatial ability and the ontogenesis of individual differences. Recent research has shown that individual differences in spatial skills are predictive of later careers in STEM disciplines (Shea et al 2001;Wai et al 2009). Therefore, it is of important practical relevance to learn more about individual differences in mental rotation abilities, their origins, and means to foster this spatial skill at a young age.…”