=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2088/paper2
|storemode=property
|title=Development of Methodological Tools for Assessment and Enhancement Geospatial Literacy
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2088/paper2.pdf
|volume=Vol-2088
|authors=Christos Charcharos,Emmanuel Papadakis,Thomas Blaschke,Vuokko Heikinheimo,Hoda Allahbakhshi,Robert Weibel,Weiming Huang,Ali Mansourian,Lars Harrie,Sebastian Hunger,Azimjon Sayidov,Robert Weibel,Kiran Zahra
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/agile/Charcharos17
}}
==Development of Methodological Tools for Assessment and Enhancement Geospatial Literacy==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2088/paper2.pdf
Development of Methodological Tools for Assessment and
Enhancement Geospatial Literacy
Christos Charcharos
School of Rural and Surveying Engineering
National Technical University of Athens
H. Polytechniou Str. 9, 15780, Zografos Campus
Athens, Greece
chchar@central.ntua.gr
Abstract
Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of spatial thinking in sciences and in everyday life. The dissertation consistes of four
distinctive but consecutive phases and its main purpose is the development of a methodological tool for the holistic assessment and
enhancement of spatial abilities. This need is dictated by the fact that the current international approaches are limited to the assessment of
individual small-scale spatial thinking factors, using paper-and-pencil questionnaires, while those of large-scale are usually neglected. In order
to achieve that, in the first phase of the dissertation, spatial thinking will be delineated by identifying all its discrete factors through the
implementation of Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). Afterwards, the methodological tool will be designed, implemented and evaluated. In
addition, it will either be supported by a digital platform (e.g. GEOTHNK) or be a serious game that addresses to everyone (from young
people to adults). In the third stage, the often-supported correlation between spatial thinking and problem-solving abilities will be investigated,
using appropriate statistical methods. The last phase of the dissertation concerns the enhancement of spatial thinking at formal learning settings
through the development of learning activities and scenarios that exploits Information and Communication Tools (ICT). Thus, students will
be able to familiarize themselves with the building blocks of spatial thinking (spatial concepts, representation tools and reasoning processes).
Keywords: Spatial thinking, small-scale, large-scale, assessment, enhancement.
1 Introduction processes (combining maps and making inferences
about the potential areas).
Spatial thinking is the cognitive ability to visualize Spatial and geospatial thinking are used as
and interpret location, position, distance, direction, identical concepts, but there is an important
relationships, movement, and change over space, in difference that distinguishes them. In order to
different situations and at different scales (Sinton et realize that distinction, someone should fully
al., 2013). It is defined as a constructive synthesis understand the models of geographic space, which
of three components: (a) concepts of space, (b) tools can be categorized based on their projective size in
of representation, and (c) processes of reasoning relation to human body and the mobility that is
(NRC, 2006). The geospatial domain presents an required to comprehend their dimensions. Montello
excellent opportunity towards achieving a (1993) considers that the geographic space consists
meaningful connection between theoretical, higher- of four major classes: figural, vista, environmental
level concepts and tools of representation and their and geographical. The first two spaces are
application in everyday life such as locating one’s projectively smaller than the human body or equal
home or following directions to an unknown place. to it respectively and can be apprehended without
For example, to identify suitable areas for appreciable mobility, while the environmental and
constructing a winery based on various criteria geographical space are projectively larger or much
(altitude and distance from towns and rivers), larger than the human body and can be perceived
someone should grasp spatial concepts (location, via mobility or maps respectively. Golledge (2008),
distance, proximity, area of influence and using the previous classification of geographic
elevation), use representation tools (maps and space, notes that the term “spatial” refers to the
terrain models), and be able to perform reasoning
4th AGILE PhD School, October 30 – November 2, 2017
figural and vista space, while the term “geospatial” According to Booth & Thomas (2000), spatial
refers to the environmental and geographical space. thinking includes cognitive skills related to map
The report of National Research Council (NRC, reading and making, processes involving
2006) "Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a representation, scale, transformation, production
Support System in the K-12 Curriculum" argues and recall of symbolic information, recognition and
that spatial thinking is essential in science and: understanding of spatial projections, coordinate
“without explicit attention to [spatial literacy], we systems, geometric configurations, formulation of
cannot meet our responsibility for equipping the verbal instructions as well as navigation and
next generation of students for life and work in the orientation based on observation and instruments
21st century”. This report marked the need for a handling. This complexity hinders the delineation
turn in education towards the enhancement of of spatial thinking because there isn’t an explicit
categorization of its factors. Many researchers have
spatial thinking and spatial literacy.
dealt with this issue and various factors have
The results from NRC’s report stress the
emerged such as spatial perception, spatial
rewarding effects of developing geospatial skills in
visualization and mental rotation (Linn & Peterson,
increasing the participation in STEM disciplines 1985), visualization, spatial relationships,
(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), flexibility of closure, closure speed and perceptual
lacking of which acts as a barrier for students ability (Carroll, 1993), navigation, dynamic spatial
leading them to dropout (Utal & Cohen, 2012). ability, environmental ability etc. In addition,
Even more, spatial thinking is a vital talent for spatial thinking factors have been defined in a
achieving STEM innovation, however due to being variety of ways (e.g. similar descriptions with
neglected by educational systems it has been missed different terms, identical terms with different
(NSF, 2010). meanings). Furthermore, the number of factors
Spatial skills are not innate but can be taught and varies from author to author and ranges from two to
cultivated with meaningful results. Their ten (D’Oliveira, 2004). It is remarkable that the
empowerment can be achieved through formal majority of them refers to small-scale factors, while
learning settings (Hegarty, 2014; Uttal et al., 2012 those of large-scale have not been studied
& 2013) and according to the NRC report: extensively.
“fostering spatial literacy can be achieved only by The second contribution of the dissertation
systemic educational reform”. For example, concerns the development of a methodological tool
children's spatial abilities can be enhanced by for the holistic assessment of spatial thinking. So
puzzle games or the use of spatial language and far, questionnaires are used to assess a single spatial
thinking factor, particularly those of small-scale.
gestures by teachers (Newcombe, 2010). Sorby
For example, Card Rotation test identifies two-
(2009) improved the performance of undergraduate
dimensional orientation and mental rotation of
students of polytechnic schools through a spatial
objects, Hidden Image test evaluates flexibility of
visualization course. closure, Paper FormBoard assesses two-
This dissertation will try to give more insights dimensional spatial visualization (Ekstrom, 1976).
regarding: a) the “families” of spatial thinking In addition, some questionnaires have been
abilities by defining the small- and large-scale developed that simultaneously evaluate several
spatial thinking factors, b) methods for holistic small-scale factors, such as the Spatial Thinking
assessment of spatial thinking, c) the often- Ability Test (Lee & Bednarz, 2012) and the Spatial
supported correlation between spatial thinking and Ability Test (Khaing, 2012). Therefore, there aren’t
problem-solving abilities and d) the enhancement of any means for holistic evaluation of both small- and
spatial thinking abilities through the use of ICT large-scale spatial thinking factors. Moreover, most
tools and resources. of the aforementioned questionnaires were
developed without the contribution of a geospatial
scientist. Thus, spatial abilities are determined in
2 Research Questions the narrow context of psychology and not within the
4th AGILE PhD School, October 30 – November 2, 2017
broad spectrum of spatial thinking (Hegarty et al., • The subject of the fourth phase is the
2002). enhancement of spatial thinking through the
The investigation of the relationship between development of educational resources using a
spatial thinking and problem-solving skills properly structured toolkit.
constitutes the third pillar of the dissertation.
Problem-solving skills have been associated with More specific, in the first phase the international
other cognitive skills such as critical and reflective literature has been studied in order to record all
thinking skills (Demirel et al., 2015), metacognitive small- and large-scale spatial thinking factors. So
and innovation skills (Brumer et al., 2014). Recent far, 33 factors have been identified, 20 of which are
studies have also examined the correlation between characterized as small-scale factors. Approximately
these two cognitive abilities. However, in these 100 participants will take part in an experimental
studies only a specific spatial thinking factor is process, which will cluster these factors into
associated with a specific type of problem. For categories. Using existing questionnaires that have
example, the type of visual representation with the been checked for validity and reliability, a score
ability to solve verbal problems (Boonen et al., will be calculated for each factor. Through
2014) or the ability to locate objects with the ability appropriate statistical analyses (Pearson correlation
to reason about distances (Mohring, 2015). coefficient or Spearman’s rank correlation
The fourth axis of the dissertation concerns the coefficient), the correlation matrix of these factors
development of educational resources in order to will be produced, which will also be used as the
cultivate spatial thinking through formal learning entry data for conducting multidimensional scaling
settings. In the international literature, various (MDS), resulting in the identification of the
methods can be spotted, including the use of virtual “families” of spatial thinking.
environments (Hauptman, 2011), educational The next phase includes the design and
scenarios (Kavouras et al., 2014) or Web-GIS (Jo et implementation of the methodological tool, which
al., 2016). In all these methods, the curriculum of will be an extension of the GEOTHNK platform
secondary and tertiary education was studied and developed in the framework of a European project
the resources were developed targeting specific to promote spatial thinking in formal learning
courses. Although there are many educational settings (Kavouras et al., 2014). Firstly, the
resources at an international level, those that are functional requirements of the system, the goals to
available in Greece are few and limited to the be achieved and the end users, consisting of young
development of educational scenarios without people and young adults (ages 13 to 25), will be
exploiting Information and Communication defined. At the implementation stage, except for the
Technology (ICT) tools. methodological tool, an online questionnaire will
also be developed, meeting the necessary standards
of validity and reliability. The methodological tool
3 Methodology
will provide the ability to interact with the user in
order to evaluate spatial thinking. Thus, learning
The dissertation consists of four successive phases,
which are analyzed below: analytics tools are likely to be used, which will
collect, analyze and measure data from the learners,
• In the first phase, an extensive literature review for purposes of understanding and optimizing
has been conducted in order to identify the learning and the environments in which it occurs.
representative factors / “families” of spatial Several learning analytics tools have been
thinking. developed, such as SNAPP, C4S, AWE, PASS
• The second phase involves the design and (Atif et al., 2013), which will be evaluated in order
implementation of the methodological tool in which to identify the one that best suits the needs of the
learning analytics tools will be integrated. methodological tool.
• The third phase concerns the evaluation of the
In the third phase, a preliminary evaluation of the
methodological tool and the investigation of the
relationship between spatial thinking and problem- methodological tool with a relative small number of
solving skills. participants will be carried out in order to identify
4th AGILE PhD School, October 30 – November 2, 2017
any errors and omissions. Once these errors are I would like to acknowledge Eugenides Foundation
corrected, the methodological tool will be used to for its financial support through a PhD scholarship.
assess spatial thinking of secondary and tertiary In addition, I would like to thank my supervisor
students. Additionally, problem-solving skills of Prof. Marinos Kavouras, as well as Dr. Margarita
the same students will be evaluated, using the Kokla and Dr. Eleni Tomai for their support.
“Programme for International Student Assessment”
(PISA) questionnaire (OECD, 2015) or the Adult
Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (OECD, 2005), References
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4 Expected Results
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