Abstract
Teaching Spatial Thinking and Understanding Implications for GIS
Track: Educational Research and Teacher Education
Author(s): Diana Sinton
Spatial thinking is a multi-faceted and complex topic of growing academic interest. Geographers, educational researchers, psychologists, geoscientists, cognitive scientists, and others have taken an interest. What would a stand-alone curriculum focusing on spatial thinking look like? Can spatial thinking be taught in an extra-disciplinary sense? How can spatial thinking be assessed? This presentation will describe a First Year Seminar taught at the University of Redlands in Fall 2008 whose overarching objective was to expand the capacity for spatial thinking among its students. The knowledge organized from the class is contributing to the campus-wide spatial initiative that is actively being pursued at Redlands. Furthermore, it is informing our thinking about the ways in which GIS – as one tool that spatial thinkers use – can be designed, taught, and learned. Ideas for how a better understanding of spatial concepts might inform the next generation of GIS will be discussed.
Diana Sinton
University of Redlands
1200 E Colton Ave
Redlands , California 92373
United States
Phone: 909-748-8687
E-mail: diana_sinton@redlands.edu