Browse > Article

A Study on the Relation among Mathematical - Spatial - Verbal Abilities and Gender Differences of Engineering Students  

Kim, Yeon Mi (School of Engineering, Hong Ik University)
Publication Information
Journal of Engineering Education Research / v.18, no.4, 2015 , pp. 34-44 More about this Journal
Abstract
Mathematical, spatial, and verbal abilities are important for future engineers to succeed in the STEM disciplines. The purpose of the study is to assess engineering students' spatial abilities and analyse the relationship with mathematical achievement, verbal achievement, and gender. On the mental rotation tests, 65% of male students demonstrated a substantial level of spatial abilities. But only 30% of female students exhibited spatial skills at the same level as their male colleagues. The correlations between mathematical - spatial - verbal abilities are found to be negligible. When spatial visualization ability was plotted according to the mathematical achievement level, there was no difference in the mean spatial abilities score. But when mathematical achievement score was plotted according to the spatial abilities, there was a noticeable difference. Regression analysis confirmed that female students' mathematical achievement increased as spatial abilities improved. This phenomenon was not observed for male students. It's because male students' spatial ability already contributed to their mathematics achievement. So spatial ability can be regarded as one factor for the gender differences in mathematics achievement. The gender gap on spatial abilities and math achievement is large among high achieving students. For example, there was a 4.3 to 1 male - female ratio and 3.4 to 1 male - female ratio among students scoring 99th percentile in spatial visualization test and scholastic aptitude test-math.
Keywords
spatial ability; gender differences; mental rotation; holistic vs analytic(serial) strategies;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Battista, M. T.(1990). Spatial visualization and gender differences in high school geometry, Journal for research in Mathematics Education, 21: 47 - 60.   DOI
2 Benbow, C.(1992). Academic achievements in mathematics and science of students between age 13 and 23: Are there differences among students in the top one percent of mathematical ability? Journal of educational psychology, 84: 51 - 61   DOI
3 Caroll, J. B. (2003). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor analytic studies. New York: Cambridge University Press Cambridge.
4 Casey, M., Nuttal, R., Pezaris, E.(2001). Spatialmechanical reasoning skills versus mathematics selfconfidence as mediators of gender differences on mathematics subtests using cross-national gender-based items. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 32(1): 28-57.   DOI
5 Chen, C-H, Chang, W-C, & Chang, W-T.(2009). Gender Differences in relation to wayfinding strategies, navigational support design, and wayfinding task difficulty, Journal of environmental psychology, 29: 220-226.   DOI
6 Ellison, G. & Swanson, A.(2009). The gender gap in secondary school mathematics at high achievement levels: Evidence from the American Mathematics competition. Retrieved from www.economics/mit.edu/files/4298
7 Fennema, E., & Tartre, L.(1985). The use of spatial visualization in mathematics by girls and boys. Journal for research in Mathematics Education, 16: 184 - 206.   DOI
8 Friedman, L.(1989). Mathematics and the gender gap: a meta analysis of recent studies on sex differences in mathematics tasks. Review of Educational research, 59(2):185-213.   DOI
9 Guay, R.(1997). Purdue spatial visualization testvisualization of rotations, W. Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue Researh Foundation.
10 Hagarty, M & Waller, D.(2005). Individual differences in spatial abilities. In P. Shah, & A. Miyake (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of visuospatial thinking (pp. 121e167). New York: Cambridge University Press.
11 Linn & Peterson.(1985). Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: A meta-Analysis. Child Development, 56: 1479 - 1498.   DOI
12 Lohman, D. F.(2009). Identifying academically talented students: Some general principles, two specific procedures. In L. Shavinina (Ed.), International handbook on giftedness, (pp.971-997). New York, NY: Springer.
13 Lakin, J.(2012). Sex differences in reasoning abilities: Surprising evidence that male -female ratios in the tails of quantitative reasoning distribution have increased, Intelligence,
14 Lohman, D.F. & Lakin, J.(2008). Consistencies in sex differences on the cognitive abilities tests across countries, grades, and cohorts. Retrieved from http://auburn.edu/-jml0035/index_files/Lohman_Lakin_BJEP09.pdf
15 Lubinski, D. & Benbow, C.(1992). Gender differences in abilities and preferences among the gifted. Implications for the math-science pipelines. Current directions in Psychological Sciences, 1: 61 -66.   DOI
16 McGee, M. (1997). Human spatial abilities: Psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurolgical influences, Psychological Bulletin, 86(5): 889-918.   DOI
17 Robert, M. & Chevrier, E.(2003). Does men's advantage in mental rotation persist when real 3 dimensional object are either felt or seen? Pub Med, 31(7): 1136 - 1145.
18 Nuttall, R., casey, B., & Pazaris, E. (2005). Spatial ability as a mediator of gender differences on mathematics tests. In A. Gallagher, J. Kaufmann(Eds.), Gender dofferences in mathematics, London: cambridge University
19 OECD(2014). PISA2012 results: what students know and can do. Vol(1), Vol(3), Paris: OECD Publishing
20 Raven, J., Raven, J. C. & Court, J. H.(1998, 2003). Manual for Raven's Progressive matrices and vocabulary Scales, Section 1: General overview, San Antonio: Texas, Hearcourt. Assessment.
21 Shepard, R. N., & Metzler, J.(1971). Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science, 171(3972): 701 - 703   DOI
22 Sorby, S.(2009). Developing spatial cognitive skills among middle school students. Cognitive Processing, 10(Suppl. 2): 312 - 315.   DOI
23 Tolar, T., Lederberg, A., & Fletcher, J.(2009). A structural model of algebra achievement: Computational fluency and spatial visualization as mediators of the effect of working memory on algebra achievement, Educational Psychology, 29(2): 239-266.   DOI
24 Tartre, L.(1990). Spatial orientation skill and mathematical problem solving, Journal for research in Mathematics Education, 21(3): 216-229.   DOI
25 Utal, D & Cohen, C.(2012). Spatial Thinking and STEM education: When, Why, and How?, Psychology of learning and motivation, 57: 147-181.   DOI
26 Wai, J. Lubinski, D & Benbow, C. (2010). Accomplishment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and its relation to STEM Educational Dose: a 25-year longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102: 860 - 871.   DOI