Sex-related Differences in Spatial Ability: What Every Geography Educator Should Know

Abstract

This paper focuses on how geography teachers might contribute to two national goals: attracting more women into scientific and technical fields, and helping domestic students of both sexes acquire the spatial abilities and knowledge required to make them first in the world in science and mathematics achievement. Study in the general sciences and in engineering often demands a high degree of spatial competence. This paper explores the nature of the relationship between sex and spatial competence, generally emphasizing some of the scientific components of geography. It seeks first to identify key spatial abilities needed to excel in various science, technical, and some social science and humanities disciplines. It further seeks to answer the question of whether males possess superior spatial ability, as has been reported in a number of disciplinary literatures, or whether male dominance in spatial ability generally has been overestimated. Finally, it suggests areas where there is potential for geography teachers to assist their students to better develop their spatial knowledge and understanding, thus helping to increase the pool of American students qualified and enthused to undertake advanced course work in the sciences, engineering, and technological fields. Our findings indicate that male superiority in spatial ability is most obvious on geometric visualization tasks and that it is most noticeable when a key variable is response time rather than accuracy. Emerging evidence shows better female performance on other spatial tasks, including those involving spatial-relational abilities. Recent work indicates that teacher interventions (e.g., science fairs, using real world spatial illustrations, etc.), along with an encouraging equal opportunity attitude and fair classroom practices, should help all students to develop and display their spatial abilities even if they do not plan science, engineering, or technology as a career choice.

Key Words:

• spatial competence
• spatial ability
• gender
• geographic education
• science education