Despite some gains, women continue to be underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Using a national longitudinal dataset of 690 participants born in 1991, we tested whether spatial skills, measured in middle childhood, would help explain this gender gap. We modeled the relation between 4th-grade spatial…

There are consistent correlations between mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety, but the longitudinal relations among these constructs are not well understood nor are sex differences in these relations. To address this gap, mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety were longitudinally assessed for 342 (169 boys) adolescents from…

Predictors of academic success in anatomy have been studied, but not in Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students. The objectives of this study were to (1) explore predictors of academic success in a DPT anatomy course, (2) evaluate sex-based differences in the predictors of academic success and their influence on anatomy course grade, and (3)…

Undergraduate students may possess underdeveloped knowledge about water systems, particularly groundwater. The use of models and modeling have been employed in undergraduate classrooms to support students' learning about water. However, effective modeling requires spatial thinking skills, which undergraduate students may also need to develop.…

To achieve adaptive learning, a dynamic assessment system equipped with a cognitive diagnosis was developed for this study, which adopts a three-stage model of diagnosis-intervention-assessment. To examine how this system influenced spatial geometry learning, the study used a quasi-experimental method to investigate student learning outcomes…

Spatial thinking predicts Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics achievement, yet is often absent from educational "policy." We provide benchmarks of teachers' usage and perceptions of spatial activities "in practice" in the reception classroom (first year of primary school). In this questionnaire study of…

Humans use space as a lens to navigate and make sense of the world, thus successfully applying spatial concepts is an important life skill. Spatial thinking and developing spatial concepts are core components of school Geography curricula. Teachers teach geographical skills systematically aligning to the curriculum; however, students can struggle…

Children's arithmetic performance is dependent on the arithmetic task format, but little is known about how domain-specific and domain-general abilities contribute to solving diverse arithmetic problems. In this study, 145 Italian typically developing children between the ages of five and six, who have not yet received formal schooling, were…

The early development of spatial reasoning skills has been linked to future success in mathematics (Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009), but research to date has mainly focused on the development of these skills within classroom settings rather than at home. The home environment is often the first place students are exposed to, and develop, early…

Immersive spatial diagrams (three-dimensional diagrams rendered with immersive stereoscopic displays) offer learners the opportunity to extend practices of diagramming in school geometry into a human-scale, spatial context. Learners can use two or more hands to inscribe simultaneously with digital spatial painting tools, a spatial analog of the…

The aim of this study was to explore how landmark-based STEAM projects can be created to run cross-country math trails utilizing augmented reality and 3D printing technologies. A study was conducted involving 42 prospective teachers at a teacher education institution. We organized a series of lectures in a spatial geometry course and explored…

Emerging digital technologies offer a transformative potential to redefine learning tasks and many examples of this potential are now available. The scaling of the innovative pedagogies emerging from the research into widespread and sustainable practice, however, remains problematic. This paper addresses the issue of scaling by using Design Based…

Visual search is faster when a fixed target location is paired with a spatially invariant (vs. randomly changing) distractor configuration, thus indicating that repeated contexts are learned, thereby guiding attention to the target (contextual cueing [CC]). Evidence for memory-guided attention has also been revealed with electrophysiological…

This research examined how spatial ability, sex, and cognitive styles associate with self-directed multimedia resource use (study 1) and learning outcomes (study 2). In study 1, three learning resource options were offered: two unimodal (text-only and labelled-picture) and one multimodal (picture-with-narration). Findings revealed that lower…

This study aims to compare the efficacy of simultaneous prompting presented via tablets and visual cards in the instruction of spatial concepts to students with intellectual disabilities. A mobile learning software was developed within portable devices by using simultaneous prompting method to teach spatial concepts. The adapted alternating…