Spatial design elementSpatial literacy is the ability to understand the concept of space; apply processes of reasoning employing appropriate tools to determine spatial relationship between people, places, or objects; and visualize or communicate those spatial relationships in various contexts. (Johnson, 2008) |
What does the spatial design element include?
You will commonly hear the term 'spatial literacy' used within education as demonstrated in the above definition. However this website uses the term 'spatial design element' to emphasise that this is only one component of literacy and not a separate entity, based on the work of the New London Group (1996).
Spatial design refers to different sets of skills and activities for each subject. Please find some common examples below:
· Reading a map, for our own navigation or to understand patterns
· Designing any kind of plan or arrangement of information
· Producing and interpreting diagrams, graphs and charts
· Understanding the weather, the seasons, or time zones
(University of Redlands, n.d.)
Spatial design refers to different sets of skills and activities for each subject. Please find some common examples below:
· Reading a map, for our own navigation or to understand patterns
· Designing any kind of plan or arrangement of information
· Producing and interpreting diagrams, graphs and charts
· Understanding the weather, the seasons, or time zones
(University of Redlands, n.d.)
Why is it important?
1. The spatial design element is becoming increasingly necessary in this day and age.
Given the increasing integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into our everyday lives, the skill-set required by tomorrow's youth are changing. "Visual-spatial intelligence is more important than ever, as life itself becomes more and more an image in television, video games, and virtual environments" (Scholten & Van Leeuwen, 2009).
Educators need to integrate spatial awareness into their classroom to prepare students for careers that utilise these skills, "including medicine and public health, architecture, engineering, web site design, photography, hydrology, politics and community organization, computer network administration, plumbing, teaching, marketing and advertising, occupational and physical therapy, fashion design and many more" (University of Redlands, n.d.). To further support the necssity of education of spatial literacy, the National Science Foundation (2010) released a report that identified spatial thinking on par with quantitative and verbal abilities when predicting achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
2. The current trend is that educators are not explicitly targeting this skill.
Educators need to ensure that their students are literate in all of the design elements of text, specifically they need to explicitly target spatial thinking given the lack of prior teaching. Goodchild (2009) supports this conclusion by explaining that spatial literacy is a way of thinking that is not naturally gifted to everyone and therefore needs to be taught and facilitated. Bednarz (2005) assumes an even higher important to spatial literacy by stating that “spatial thinking is the lever to enable students to achieve a deeper, more insightful understanding of subjects across the curriculum. It is a pervasive way of thinking that crosses disciplinary boundaries. It is not an ADD-ON but a missing link". There have been numerous reports and articles released calling for a greater emphasis on spatial literacy including a report from the National Research Council (eSchool News staff and wire service reports, 2006) and a GIS-focused article released by Scholten and Van Leeuwen (2009).
Given the increasing integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into our everyday lives, the skill-set required by tomorrow's youth are changing. "Visual-spatial intelligence is more important than ever, as life itself becomes more and more an image in television, video games, and virtual environments" (Scholten & Van Leeuwen, 2009).
Educators need to integrate spatial awareness into their classroom to prepare students for careers that utilise these skills, "including medicine and public health, architecture, engineering, web site design, photography, hydrology, politics and community organization, computer network administration, plumbing, teaching, marketing and advertising, occupational and physical therapy, fashion design and many more" (University of Redlands, n.d.). To further support the necssity of education of spatial literacy, the National Science Foundation (2010) released a report that identified spatial thinking on par with quantitative and verbal abilities when predicting achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
2. The current trend is that educators are not explicitly targeting this skill.
Educators need to ensure that their students are literate in all of the design elements of text, specifically they need to explicitly target spatial thinking given the lack of prior teaching. Goodchild (2009) supports this conclusion by explaining that spatial literacy is a way of thinking that is not naturally gifted to everyone and therefore needs to be taught and facilitated. Bednarz (2005) assumes an even higher important to spatial literacy by stating that “spatial thinking is the lever to enable students to achieve a deeper, more insightful understanding of subjects across the curriculum. It is a pervasive way of thinking that crosses disciplinary boundaries. It is not an ADD-ON but a missing link". There have been numerous reports and articles released calling for a greater emphasis on spatial literacy including a report from the National Research Council (eSchool News staff and wire service reports, 2006) and a GIS-focused article released by Scholten and Van Leeuwen (2009).
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