TY - JOUR
T1 - Locating the potential development of spatial ability in the Swedish national curriculum
AU - Lin, Ting Jun
AU - Buckley, Jeffrey
AU - Gumaelius, Lena
AU - Ampadu, Ernest
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors
PY - 2024/10/15
Y1 - 2024/10/15
N2 - There exists a plethora of studies that have related pupils’ spatial ability to their academic achievement and problem-solving skills, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. However, little is known about how spatial ability could be presented in a national curriculum. To increase the awareness and intention to develop pupils' spatial ability within the national curriculum, the compulsory curriculum document from the Swedish National Agency for Education which details all subject syllabi is examined and analysed using a content analysis method. The results show that two major dimensions could be used to locate the potential spatial ability development within the curriculum. The first is a visual dimension, which manifests as three different visual components: graphical, pictorial, and manufactured. The second is an epistemic dimension, which describes how pupils' different types of spatial knowledge can be nurtured, and inductively described as conceptual, procedural, and spatial citizenship knowledge. A three-by-three matrix framework is created based on the above dimensions and components. Policymakers and educators in Sweden, as well as in other countries, may draw insights from the framework created by this study and adapt it to educational practice, particularly in the realm of developing students' spatial ability through curriculum design and classroom instruction.
AB - There exists a plethora of studies that have related pupils’ spatial ability to their academic achievement and problem-solving skills, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. However, little is known about how spatial ability could be presented in a national curriculum. To increase the awareness and intention to develop pupils' spatial ability within the national curriculum, the compulsory curriculum document from the Swedish National Agency for Education which details all subject syllabi is examined and analysed using a content analysis method. The results show that two major dimensions could be used to locate the potential spatial ability development within the curriculum. The first is a visual dimension, which manifests as three different visual components: graphical, pictorial, and manufactured. The second is an epistemic dimension, which describes how pupils' different types of spatial knowledge can be nurtured, and inductively described as conceptual, procedural, and spatial citizenship knowledge. A three-by-three matrix framework is created based on the above dimensions and components. Policymakers and educators in Sweden, as well as in other countries, may draw insights from the framework created by this study and adapt it to educational practice, particularly in the realm of developing students' spatial ability through curriculum design and classroom instruction.
KW - Content analysis
KW - national curriculum
KW - Spatial ability
KW - Swedish compulsory education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85204873000&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e38356
DO - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e38356
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85204873000
SN - 2405-8440
VL - 10
JO - Heliyon
JF - Heliyon
IS - 19
M1 - e38356
ER -