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 "size"

magnitude

To comprehend and measure the amount of a particular feature or phenomenon and to order or classify that phenomenon on the basis of differing magnitudes (p. 95)

Geography

Golledge, et al. (2008)

Matching geospatial concepts with geographic educational needs

magnitude

The dimensions, extent, scale, or size of objects or events; also the value (greater or lesser) of a variable obtained from measurements and expressed as a quantity together with a reference to an accepted measurement scale (the units). The units for most physical variables are combinations of mass, length and time (dimensional analysis). The term order of magnitude is applied to a change by a power of ten in a value. Values ranging over many orders of magnitude are frequently expressed in non-linear form such as a logarithmic (or exponential) scale.

Science Education

Mathewson, J. H. (2005)

The visual core of science: definition and applications to education

size

...readily observable spatial properties (of an object) are size and shape

Geography

Kaufman (2004)

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

size

Size constancy...is linked with the coordination of perceptually controlled movements...(p 11) it is in terms of...grouping of movements, and the permanence attributed to the object, that the latter acquires fixed dimensions and its size is estimated more or less correctly, regardless of whether it is near or distant (p 11).

Psychology

Piaget and Inhelder (1967)

The Child's Conception of Space