Spatial and Geospatial Thinking of Secondary Education Students in Greece

Abstract

Internationally, curriculums emphasize the importance of spatial abilities development in school, and it has been proven that teaching geography can help improve spatial thinking. The main goal of this study was to investigate the spatial thinking of Secondary Education students. The research sample was 474 Junior High school students (246 students from the 7th grade and 248 students from the 8th grade), aged 13-14 years, coming from 49 different public schools all over Greece. A questionnaire was distributed to students that included questions based on the categories of spatial thinking of Gersmehl and Gersmehl (2011). The findings of the research have identified a weakness in the students’ spatial perception, with satisfactory performances only in the floor plans. There is no statistical difference between boys and girls, but the total score in most questions was low.