This article discusses the strengths of gifted visual-spatial learners and their struggles with simple concepts. Strategies for teaching visual-spatial learners are provided including general strategies, strategies for making material more meaningful, ways to help such students during lectures, foreign language strategies, math strategies, and…

Educational practice today encourages interdisciplinary teaching as teachers address important basic themes from a variety of angles. In this article, the author talks about one of her successful projects that focuses on "sense of place" as one such theme, with the more specific charge of viewing Earth from both scientific and artistic…

Background: There is growing literature suggesting that some children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can show a significant bias in attention away from left space. Here we examine mechanisms that may underpin these effects in both clinical and non-clinical child populations. Unilateral spatial inattention…

Studying the biological mechanisms underlying mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD) is a very complex task. This is due to the wide heterogeneity of etiologies and pathways that lead to MR/DD. Breakthroughs in genetics and molecular biology and the development of sophisticated brain imaging techniques during the last decades…

It has been suggested that the ability to learn a foreign language is related to working memory. However, there is no clear evidence about which component of working memory may be involved. Two experiments investigated working memory problems in groups of seventh and eighth grade Italian children with difficulties in learning English as a second…

Integrating mathematics with family and consumer sciences (FCS) has enabled youth to pass the Minnesota 8th Grade Math Basic Skills test. The test focuses on the eight content areas: (1) problem solving with whole numbers and fractions; (2) problem solving with percentage/ratio; (3) number sense; (4) estimation; 5) measurement; (6) tables and…

Rodrigo, Chamizo, McLaren, & Mackintosh (1997) demonstrated the blocking effect in a navigational task using a swimming pool: rats initially trained to use three landmarks (ABC) to find an invisible platform learned less about a fourth landmark (X) added later than did rats trained from the outset with these four landmarks (ABCX). The aim of the…

Retinoid signaling has been recently shown to be required for mnemonic functions in rodents. To dissect the behavioral and molecular mechanisms involved in this requirement, we have analyzed the spatial and recognition working memory in mice carrying null mutations of retinoid receptors RAR[subscript [beta]] and RXR[subscript [gamma]]. Double…

The nature of the message used by children, 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 year-old, was studied in a spatial description task. Speaker and listener were separated from one another by an opaque screen, and had to exchange information. Speaker were asked to describe a board showing eight objects placed in a room, and listeners were instructed to draw a similar…

The validity and reliability of a novel route learning test were examined to assess the effectiveness of its use in evaluating spatial memory in healthy older adults and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Puget Sound Route Learning Test was significantly correlated with an existing measure of cognitive ability, the Dementia Rating Scale.…

Spatial abilities are fundamental to human functioning in the physical world. Spatial reasoning allows people to use concepts of shape, features, and relationships in both concrete and abstract ways, to make and use things in the world, to navigate, and to communicate. Surgeons, pilots, architects, engineers, mechanics, builders, farmers, trades…

Women are making progress in many areas of science, but a gender gap still remains, especially in physics, computer science, and engineering, and at advanced levels of academic and career achievement. Today's teachers can help narrow this gap by instilling a love for science in their female students and by helping them to understand and develop…

The global rescaling of the world, culture, and education has influenced how people experience their situationality, meaning-making, and learning in relation to the Other. This article explores the implications of spatial analysis for rethinking education in new conditions of cultural complexity. The experience of living and learning with…

Written words are laid out in space and exist on the page all at once, but a reader can only read a few words at a time. For readers, written words are trapped in the medium of time. So how can we best organize writing for readers? Traditional techniques of organization tend to stress the arrangement of parts in space and certain metadiscoursal…

While traditional schooling has focused mainly on math and linguistic skills, psychologist Howard Gardner suggests that there are at least five additional ways of learning. This curriculum guide applies Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences to the kindergarten class, providing teachers with a practical, thematic approach that will challenge…