Investigating Spatial Skills in Computing Education

Parkinson, J. (2020) Investigating Spatial Skills in Computing Education. In: 2020 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER '20), Dunedin, New Zealand, 11-14 Aug 2020, pp. 340-341. ISBN 9781450370929 (doi: 10.1145/3372782.3407109)

Abstract

There is an intriguing connection between spatial skills and CS: those with better spatial skills tend to do better in many CS related tasks. Since spatial skills are malleable, it is tempting to simply introduce spatial skills training courses to students who are struggling and expect positive outcomes. While improved outcomes are being observed, it would be preemptive to introduce such schemes widely without better understanding the relationship. We do not know why spatial skills are important in CS, so while one might take the gains observed at face value, we stand to lose valuable insights into not only the abstract cognition involved in spatial skills which appears to be of value across STEM, but also reflective and nuanced understanding of how people engage with CS education.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Keywords: Computing education research, spatial skills.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Parkinson, Mr Jack
• Authors: Parkinson, J.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Research Group: CCSE
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery
• ISBN: 9781450370929
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 Association for Computing Machinery
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher