Spatialising the curriculum

Ashton, Emily; Mah, Kai Wood; Rivers, Patrick Lynn

doi:10.1080/00220272.2019.1657956

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Spatial language skills were directly targeted in the English lesson. Also, teachers integrated spatial skills into the activities they organized in language, music, movement, and science to spatialize the curriculum (Ashton et al, 2020;National Research Council, 2006;Newcombe, 2017). These practices and the regular training sessions made the program more holistic and practical.…”

Section: General Features Of the Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kindergarten Teachers’ Experiences in a Spatial Orientation Skills Professional Development Program

Koç

KOÇ

2023

SAGE Open

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Although earlier studies have documented the importance of spatial orientation skills in early childhood development, teachers often need more experience and guidance in teaching these skills. This research investigates how two kindergarten teachers, guided by two teacher education researchers, utilized Learning Trajectories (LT) in a Professional Development (PD) program to enhance their instructional practices in teaching spatial orientation skills. Employing a qualitative research approach, researchers collected data through semi-structured interviews, field notes, and documents prepared by the teachers and analyzed it using content analysis. Findings reveal that the program provided teachers with a framework for making instructional decisions and facilitated children’s engagement in spatial orientation tasks. However, there is a need for further in-service programs on child assessment using LT and instructional activities to improve target skills. This study highlights the potential of LT-based PD programs in fostering effective teaching of spatial orientation skills while identifying areas for further improvement in teacher education.

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Section: General Features Of the Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kindergarten Teachers’ Experiences in a Spatial Orientation Skills Professional Development Program

Koç

KOÇ

2023

SAGE Open

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“…A manifestation of this general tenet, new materialisms’ main contribution to pedagogy has stemmed from its critique of the privileged role of language and discourse as the essential media of education. From the angle of new materialisms, the availability and arrangements of material and spatial resources are not external to, or independent of, the linguistic and nonlinguistic behaviors comprised in learning (Ashton, Wood Mah, & Rivers, 2019). Accordingly, new materialists have called for curricula that combine signs and tools, texts and bodies, and subjects and objects in new, creative ways.…”

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confidence: 99%

Matter, Literacy, and English Language Teaching in an Underprivileged School in Spain

et al. 2020

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This article analyzes the processes and findings of a collaborative action research (CAR) project that aimed to analyze the potential of materiality to radically transform the way English was taught and learned in an underprivileged public school in Spain. The CAR drew on new materialisms and new literacy studies to explore the relationship between matter and English language teaching from socioeconomic, sociocultural, and technological perspectives. The main pedagogical strategy consisted of widening the quantity and quality of the material resources in the English classroom, precisely to draw a material link between the English classroom and the students’ homes, communities, and the informal literacies they enacted in them. Through two cycles of inquiry, the CAR team put into practice two multimodal and artifactual workshops with a group of nine children from underprivileged, minority backgrounds. A variety of qualitative strategies were used (including classroom recordings, student interviews, and photographs) to confirm that the insights from new materialisms and new literacy studies had generated opportunities for meaningful English learning within a culturally sustaining pedagogy.

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Online Short Spatial Ability Battery (OSSAB): Psychometric Norms for Older Students

Likhanov¹,

Tsigeman²,

Kovas³

2021

Siberian Journal of Psychology

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The need for STEM specialists is growing in current technologically-oriented economy. This calls for new approaches in evaluation and development of relevant abilities and skills. However, the current educational systems might miss some students who have high potential for this field or who can develop such potential. For example, according to the results of one Russian study, gifted children may be missed by existing methods of talent search, partially due to the lack of standardised psychometric tests, especially of abilities beyond verbal and numerical abilities. One important predictor of STEM, often neglected in education, is spatial ability. Recently an online short spatial ability battery (OSSAB) for use in adolescent popula-tions was developed. However, no published norms are available. The aim of this study was to develop normalised thresholds for spatial ability testing using OSSAB battery with Russian 13-17 year old schoolchildren. Schoolchildren from the Sirius Educational Centre, demonstrating high achievement in 3 different areas: science (N = 640; 238 females), sports (N = 436; 67 females) and art (N = 260; 204 females), and schoolchildren (N = 752; 350 females) from general education schools of the Russian Federation participated in the study. Age of participants: 13-17 (M = 15.01; SD = 1.18). The study identified thresholds for 8 spatial ability levels: from Very low ability to Extraordinary giftedness. These thresholds can be used by teachers and school psychologists to determine the level of spatial ability in schoolchildren of 13-17 years of age. Based on individual students’ current levels of spatial ability, teachers can provide individual support and recommendations. For high performance recommendations may include additional clas-ses in STEM or natural sciences, for example, electronics, robotics, programming, physics or chemistry. For lower performance recommendations may include computer games containing spatial components; sports; playing musical instruments; origami classes; and studying the Chinese language. More broadly, school curricula in different subjects should include more spatial elements, such as: inclusion of stereometric tasks in learning materials; computer pro-grams for modelling in teaching geometry and other subjects; adding visualizations (graphs and tables) when explaining material. Overall, the results of this study suggest that a significant number of children have very low or very high level of spatial ability in both mainstream schools and in educational centres for high-preforming students. The norms developed in this study can be used for identification and individualized support in all educational settings.

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Spatialising the curriculum

Cited by 3 publications

References 30 publications

Kindergarten Teachers’ Experiences in a Spatial Orientation Skills Professional Development Program

Kindergarten Teachers’ Experiences in a Spatial Orientation Skills Professional Development Program

Matter, Literacy, and English Language Teaching in an Underprivileged School in Spain

Online Short Spatial Ability Battery (OSSAB): Psychometric Norms for Older Students

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