New Orleans, Louisiana
June 26, 2016
June 26, 2016
June 29, 2016
978-0-692-68565-5
2153-5965
Educational Research and Methods
Diversity
11
10.18260/p.25631
https://strategy.asee.org/25631
704
Matthew received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University. After working for several years in the construction industry both in the field and in management, he joined the Construction Science faculty at the University of Oklahoma in 2012. Along with his research interests in safety among the Latino workforce in construction, he is interested in teaching students to improve their spatial skills and in using educational games to enhance instruction.
Dr. Diana Bairaktarova is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Through real-world engineering applications, Dr. Bairaktarova’s experiential learning research spans from engineering to psychology to learning sciences, as she uncovers how individual performance is influenced by aptitudes, spatial skills, personal interests and direct manipulation of mechanical objects.
Anna Woodcock is a social psychologist and faculty member at California State University San Marcos. She is currently investigating the contextual factors that promote and reinforce social disparities such as the underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM. Specifically: individual differences in motivations to pursue STEM careers; the psychological processes underlying the underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM; and effective interventions for diversifying STEM.
Spatial thinking refers to the ability to create and hold an object in the mind’s eye and manipulate that object via sectional cuts, three dimensional rotations, and other mental operations. Prior research suggests that the degree to which students differ in their development of spatial skills affects their performance on instructional tasks that require spatial visualization. This study builds on prior efforts to identify how individuals’ beliefs and experiences influence spatial skills. Building on previous studies in the literature and prior work by the authors, a revised instrument was developed and allows for the analysis of the interaction between life experiences, motivation, and spatial skills. Based on a factor analysis, these life experiences are grouped into factors that are then analyzed for correlation with spatial skills. Results indicate that there is a correlation between experience in designing and building things and high spatial skills. Results also indicate that those that believe that knowledge is fixed tend to have lower spatial skills. This effect is mediated by individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs.
Reyes, M., & Bairaktarova, D., & Woodcock, A. (2016, June), Improving Student Spatial Skills: Using Life Experiences and Motivational Factors to Inform Instructional Interventions Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25631
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