This paper surveys some major trends from research on visual and spatial thinking coming from cognitive science, developmental psychology, science literacy, and science studies. It explores the role of visualisation in creativity, in building mental models, and in the communication of scientific ideas, in order to place these findings in the…

Within the study of geometry in the middle school curriculum is the natural development of students' spatial visualization, the ability to visualize two- and three-dimensional objects. The national mathematics standards call specifically for the development of such skills through hands-on experiences. A commonly accepted method is through the…

American Indian cultures tend to be right hemispheric because of the ways in which they acquire knowledge. Over the thousands of years that American Indian peoples have lived in this hemisphere, strong visual rhetorics were developed, because of this tendency to engage in visual thinking and the socioeconomic need to communicate with others who…

This paper describes a visualization environment and associated learning activities designed to improve learning of computer architecture. The environment, EasyCPU, displays a model of the components of a computer and the dynamic processes involved in program execution. We present the results of a research program that analysed the contribution of…

Many educators believe that solid modeling software has made teaching two- and three-dimensional visualization skills obsolete. They claim that the visual tools built into the solid modeling software serve as a replacement for the CAD operator's personal visualization skills. They also claim that because solid modeling software can produce…

Do we view the world differently if it is described to us in figurative rather than literal terms? An answer to this question would reveal something about both the conceptual representation of figurative language and the scope of top-down influences on scene perception. Previous work has shown that participants will look longer at a path region of…

The development of mental imagery in relation to the comprehension of concrete proverbs (e.g., "one rotten apple spoils the barrel") was examined in children, adolescents, and adults who were ages 11 to 29 years old (n = 210). The findings indicated that age-related changes occurred in mental imagery and in proverb comprehension during the years…

This phenomenological investigation examined the lived experience of technically-oriented students over the course of a single semester, attempting to answer the question, "What was it like for a student to experience the spatial ability phenomenon?" The study included 12 interviewees and 8 focus group freshman participants at a Midwestern…

This study measures changes in teachers' attitudes, content knowledge, and spatial ability following a two-year visualization workshop experience. The workshop involved intensive, half-day sessions over three weeks for two consecutive summers, in which the participants worked with three-dimensional models and computer-generated images. No changes…

Middle and High school students of the twenty-first century possess surprising powers of spatial reasoning. They are assisted by technologies not available to earlier generations. Both of these assertions are demonstrated by students who are challenged with George Polya's classic Five Planes Problem. (Contains 5 figures.)

The Picture It! reading strategy uses the elements of story grammar and visualization in a mnemonic format to enhance comprehension, aid vocabulary development, visually establish story sequence, and stimulate discussion of both the big picture of the story's meaning and the details which support the author's message. It is a strategy that can be…

There are many studies on the role of images in understanding the concept of limit. However, relatively few studies have been conducted on how students' understanding of the rigorous definition of limit is influenced by the images of limit that the students have constructed through their previous learning. This study explored how calculus…

Fundamental concepts and definitions of electronic learning (eLearning) continue to emerge, and theories of eLearning that have been advanced thus far cover an array of academic perspectives including training and education, learning and knowledge, and technology and applications to specific market segments. Any study of the effectiveness and…

Using animated visualization tools has been an important teaching approach in computer science education. We have developed three visualization and animation tools that demonstrate various information security concepts and actively engage learners. The information security concepts illustrated include: packet sniffer and related computer network…

The 13th iteration of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2020) was originally arranged to take place in Ifrane, Morocco. Due to the SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) epidemic, EDM 2020, as well as most other academic conferences in 2020, had to be changed to a purely online format. To facilitate efficient transmission of…