SL-CN: Understanding and Promoting Spatial Learning Processes in the Geosciences

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This Science of Learning Collaborative Network of cognitive psychologists, education researchers, and geoscience educators from Temple University, Carleton College, and Northern Illinois University focuses on spatial learning. The team will develop new spatial learning principles by designing teaching tools that can be applied across classroom and field courses in the geosciences - a field of science that depends very heavily on spatial skills and spatial reasoning. The tools will be designed to allow students to self-correct conceptual errors in their understanding of scientific concepts, and will be made available through a project web site. Courses on using the tools will also be offered at meetings of geoscience professionals and teachers. The research will expand fundamental understanding of the science of learning by characterizing the different types of spatial reasoning that are required for the practice of a complex spatial science. The research will develop new supports for spatial learning challenges that have been barriers for student learning. The findings could ultimately improve retention and learning in geosciences and in many other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) domains that depend on spatial thinking. Spatial thinking plays a critical role in STEM-related course achievement. Supporting the development of spatial thinking in a science curriculum requires an interdisciplinary effort that combines knowledge of the specific disciplinary science with education and psychology expertise. This collaborative network will develop two new fundamental and complementary spatial learning principles. One is spatial feedback, which is feedback in the form of a spatial error that allows the mind and brain to guide learning. Providing feedback about spatial information is essential to supporting learning about complex spatial concepts across the geosciences. The other is spatial accommodation, which is the constructing and reconstructing of mental models to accurately incorporate spatial information to improve inaccurate mental models from spatial feedback. The network will create a "trading zone" where theory and practice converge so that research on education and cognitive psychology can be influenced by disciplinary geoscience content, and vice versa. The expected results include new designs for teaching tools and new insights into the working of the human mind and brain.The award is from the Science of Learning-Collaborative Networks (SL-CN) Program, with funding from the SBE Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS), the SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SMA), and the EHR Core Research (ECR) Program.