The Relation Between Spatial Visualization and Skills for Geometry

Abstract

This work aims to show an educational experience in high school classrooms, taken by students in the subject of Mathematics from the third year of Secondary Education. The main goal of this study is to check the relation between the spatial visualization skills and the ability of the high school students for Geometry. Furthermore, this study also shows how the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) could help to understand some geometric concepts, in a more dynamic and interactive way, once them have been implemented both in the lesson and the classroom. Therefore, two hypotheses were posed at the beginning of the work, in relation with the spatial abilities and ICT, which will be checked at the end of the work supported on the real experience. Several activities have been carried out to find out the relation above. The first one was an initial assessment test that allowed identifying which difficulties students have concerning Geometry. Other activity was the implementation of ICT in order to facilitate understanding some complex geometric concepts. Besides, a test that specifically assessed the students' spatial visualization was conducted. Finally, it was performed a final test at the end of the lesson, to assess the knowledge acquired by students. After the implementation of these tools, we collected the data, did an analysis and tested the previous hypotheses. As conclusion we will see that, on the one hand, we finally validated that spatial visualization is related to the ability of students for geometry. And, on the other hand, we also demonstrated that ICT contribute to enhance geometry learning, especially in those difficult concepts.