Pesquisa em rede sobre a proficiência do pensamento espacial nos cursos de graduação em geografia: primeiras aproximações

Abstract

This article is the result of a network research that aimed to identify to what extent the undergraduate courses in Geography from five brazilian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) contribute to the spatial thinking proficiency of their students. This investigation was established through applications of the instrument named Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT), elaborated by Lee and Bednarz (2012), for beginners and final-year undergraduate students of the Geography course, preferably, undergraduates. The application focused on these two groups, and was intended to identify knowledge regarding to spatial thinking throughout the training of future geographers. As a result, the global analysis of the data indicates a very modest difference in performance between first and fourth-year undergraduate students in Geography and a lower than expected performance in terms of the percentage of correct answers of both two groups in competences assessed through problem-situations that we understand to be easier. All this investigative effort was based on the recognition that spatial thinking is one of the most fundamental intellectual conditions for, subsequently, students become to produce the geographical interpretation of problematic situations.