KarlG's blog

In March, 2011 eight researchers from the fields of geography, psychology, earth science, mathematics, cognitive psychology and math education met at a UC Santa Barbara Center for Spatial Studies workshop to take preliminary steps towards developing a set of spatial literacy benchmarks for college freshmen; that is the set of spatial concepts, spatial principles and spatial reasoning skills they might reasonably be expected to have understanding of and/or proficiency with.

In December, 2008 a specialist workshop titled Spatial Concepts in GIS and Design was hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara Center for Spatial Studies (also known as spatial@ucsb). One of the core questions discussed was 'to what extent are the fundamental spatial concepts that lie behind GIS relevant in design?' One approach to answering that is to identify the sets of fundamental spatial concepts that lie behind each field—GIS and 'design'—and find their intersection. We undertook the first step of that procedure last year, and the preliminary results appear in the Concepts section of the teachspatial.org web site. The field of design in this inquiry is limited to urban design and architecture, with concepts drawn from Kevin Lynch's classic of design theory, Good City Form and Christopher Alexander's The Nature of Order.

Teaching Geographic Information Science and Technology is a 2009 "special online supplement" of the Journal of Geography in Higher Education, now freely available at http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=g915851448

The issue includes the following papers:

from the LENS web site:

LEarNing Spatially (LENS) is a campus-wide initiative promoting spatial literacy as a foundational component within a liberal arts university. This is the outcome of 10+ years of Redlands' dedication to spatial thinking in curriculum, programs and research. Spatial thinking – the ability to visualize and interpret location, distance, direction, relationships, movement and change through space – is at the core of our work. Our initiative represents a lead effort in understanding how geospatial technologies can be linked to the greater pedagogic objectives of critical thinking and problem-based learning. We are not just teaching a tool, but a way of thinking. Our approach develops student and faculty capacity to explore the spatial nature of multiple disciplines in order to generate insights that drive active learning. LENS harnesses the integrative power of geography with technologies to help faculty and students visualize knowledge, solve problems, and understand relationships through a spatial lens.

Note: this figure is an interpretation of the author(s)' ideas by K. Grossner

In the 2006 NRC report, Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum, several conceptual frameworks were put forth to describe “the nature and functions of spatial thinking.” I’ve undertaken to integrate them with the goal of illustrating how core spatial concepts, as considered by various academic disciplines, underlie spatial reasoning from infancy, to navigation, to the advanced positive and normative spatial analyses undertaken in many fields.