DeLTA Center Colloquium - Dr. Mike Stieff "The Limits of Visuo-Spatial Ability as a Predictor of Success in STEM Domains"

Spatial thinking plays a central role in scientific problem solving and expert practice. In STEM classrooms, science learners are routinely tasked with reasoning about the spatial properties of phenomena at different scales. As such, visuo-spatial ability is an obvious target for improving student success in STEM fields. Yet, empirical reports have yet to demonstrate that interventions designed to improve visuo-spatial ability yield sizeable or reliable improvements in STEM retention or academic achievement. This talk will examine alternative explanations for the poor predictive validity of visuo-spatial ability in STEM classrooms with attention to the diverse way that spatial thinking manifests in STEM domains. Using results from laboratory studies of chemistry problem solving and educational interventions in chemistry classrooms, I illustrate how various strategies and representational tools of chemistry mediate the relationship between visuo-spatial and academic achievement in the domain. These findings demonstrate that visuo-spatial ability may not be an optimal target for educational interventions and that individual and group differences in visuo-spatial ability have limited utility for identifying potential in STEM.