Spatial Concept Perspectives

We have gathered ~300 excerpts from published works about fundamental spatial concept terms. These have been cross-referenced with the concept lexicon appearing on the left. Those terms were drawn from the U.S.National Science Education Standards (NSES 1996) for topic areas B - Physical Science, C - Life Science, D - Earth and Space Science, as well as from the 1994 U.S. Geography Teaching Standards for grades 9-12. Those standards can be browsed here.

spatial concept terms

disciplinary perspectives on "direction"

direction

Directional orientation. There is a directional quality to the teacher's voice. In fact, the teacher and pupils sit face-to-face if possible. The human form has a natural orientation-a front and back-which defines a line of sight. A location or point and a line of sight or ray are necessary and sufficient to define orientation-one basic geographical property I recognize. If elements in the space have no intrinsic orientation, it is necessary and sufficient that two points exist and that direction be indicated from one to the other, perhaps by an arrow on the line connecting them. (p. 38)

Geography

Nystuen (1963)

Identification of some fundamental spatial concepts

direction

When two or more occurrences are identified, and once a frame of reference has been established, the concepts of angle, and direction naturally follow. Both are frequently specified with respect to the designated referencing system. For example, angle is often expressed in degrees represented by divisions on a circle. Direction is often specified in terms of global coordinates when high degrees of accuracy are needed (e.g., 37.5? East of North).

Geography

Golledge (1995)

Primitives of Spatial Knowledge

direction

[Direction]...is an interval measure to the extent that its origin, usually (but not always) north is arbitrary, and it is meaningless to say that a line on a bearing of 90° is "twice" 45° or "half" 180°. There is also a problem in that the difference between 001° and 359° is not 358 but only 2° (p. 151/see source for more, much more).

Geography

O'Sullivan and Unwin (2002)

Geographic Information Analysis

direction

Topic AM3-2. Define 'direction' and its measurement in different angular measures; Compare and contrast how direction is determined and stated in raster and vector data; Describe operations that can be performed on qualitative representations of direction.

Geography
Education

DiBiase, et al. (2006)

Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge

direction

Direction and angle. To comprehend concepts of angle, orientation, and frame of reference (p. 95)

Geography

Golledge, et al. (2008)

Matching geospatial concepts with geographic educational needs

direction

Develop language and means of expressing direction from a location (p. 698)

Geography

Marsh, et al. (2008)

Geospatial Concept Understanding and Recognition in G6-College Students: A Preliminary Argument for Minimal GIS

direction

Directional data require specialized methods of analysis and may exhibit special characteristics (e.g., anisotropy). "Directional analysis is perhaps less well known and well used than other forms of spatial analysis. It primarily deals with the analysis of lines, points sets and surface orientation, sometimes from different time periods, examining patterns in order to identify and utilise information on specific directional trends.

Geography

de Smith, et al. (2008)

Geospatial Analysis: A comprehensive guide to principles, techniques, and software tools

direction

When two or more (objects) are considered within measurable geographic space, additional spatial relationships can be observed. In (b), size, shape, place, and containment continue to exist for each box, but the addition of more boxes makes the spatial properties of direction and distance readily observable (p 173-174)

Geography

Kaufman (2004)

Using Spatial-Temporal Primitives to Improve Geographic Skills for Preservice Teachers

direction

[OED]: 9. a. The particular course or line pursued by any moving body, as defined by the part or region of space, point of the compass, or other fixed or known point, towards which it is directed; the relative point towards which one moves, turns the face, the mind, etc.; the line towards any point or region in its relation to other lines taken as known.

Linguistics

OED Online (2nd Ed.)

Oxford English Dictionary, Online Edition

direction

...most spatial coding situations require the use of two dimensions, rather than just one...adults remember both the distance of a point from the center of a circle (radial location) and the angular relation of the point to the radii of the circle (p 96). Distance and direction information with respect to either the self or to external landmarks, can be encoded at different levels of resolution and is known with varying degrees of certainty (p 27).

Psychology

Newcombe and Huttenlocher (2000)

Making Space