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Spatial Perception Skills of Chemistry Students

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Sharon L. Coleman and Albert J. Gotch

Southeast Missouri State University, Chemistry Department, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701

J. Chem. Educ., 1998, 75 (2), p 206

DOI: 10.1021/ed075p206

Publication Date (Web): February 1, 1998

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

General chemistry students in four different courses spanning a 12-year period were given a paper-pencil reasoning test entitled An Inventory of Piagetian Developmental Tasks (IPDT). A subset of twelve questions from this test, representing visualization abilities, were used to investigate spatial perceptual skills of students with regards to gender and course level. These findings indicate statistically significant differences in test scores based on gender, showing that males scored higher than females. A longitudinal study, comparing data from the early 1980's to data from the 1990's reveals an eroding of IPDT scores in students enrolled in the general chemistry course at Southeast Missouri State University. Gender-related scores over the same time period show a decrease in the gender gap due to a lowering of male scores. Possible explanations of results and further areas of study are suggested in the context of spatial perception research.

Keywords (Audience):

First-Year Undergraduate / General

Keywords (Domain):

Chemical Education Research

Keywords (Feature):

Chemical Education Research

Keywords (Subject):

Learning Theories

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This article has been cited by 2 ACS Journal articles (2 most recent appear below).

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