Written by Debbie Stott

Many of us find spatial thinking a challenge, even if it isn’t conscious. Quite often we forget where we left our car at the mall/airport, we are unable to give decent driving directions, we find it difficult to assemble flat pack furniture (with or without the instructions which have been translated from Chinese!) or simply pack a suitcase effectively for a long holiday.

These common activities are solved using spatial thinking. Spatial thinking is a skill used in everyday life, the workplace, and science to solve problems using concepts of space, visualisation, and reasoning.  Words are only one of the ways of passing on ideas. As humans, we also use ‘inscriptions’ such as numbers, pictures, graphs, maps, diagrams and photos to put across ideas and information. ‘Inscriptions’ are tools that help us to perceive and to talk about our spatial worlds. In other words, ‘inscriptions’ are spatial thinking tools.

Yet how many of us actually see our lack of spatial literacy as a major problem for society? Schools traditionally consider spatial thinking less important than the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, or not important at all and we find that it is not really explicitly stated in the school curriculum.

However, some American educationalists have “a concern about the capacity of the American workforce to compete successfully” against intense international competition, in global markets and facing rapid technological change in the nature of the work process.” This concern could equally be applied to South Africa, or any African nation for that matter, perhaps even more so.

We can also look at this from another angle. Unfortunately for our generation, going “green” is no longer an alternative, it is almost essential. The earth can no longer just be the concern of hippies, greenies and tree huggers. If we want our earth to be habitable for near and future generations, then we must start doing our part.

So, we can raise a new generation of environmentally responsible citizens and have a general population that is mindful of global issues. Our job as educators is to develop the spatial literacy skills of our learners so that they understand how the ‘issues of place’ affect the decisions we make in life. In essence, we can make our South African learners more knowledgeable for the global market and more employable here in South Africa by incorporating spatial literacy into our educational practices. Our learners need to learn to think about places, people, environments and cultures, to conceptualise and reflect, to analyse and evaluate, to be spatially aware and to practice informed spatially thinking.

A third perspective is that spatial literacy is also considered to be a cognitive skill that has been linked to high performance in science and maths and is integral to the studies of geography, earth and environmental sciences. These are all subjects that are highly emphasised in the school system. Spatial literacy is a skill that should be taught informally in primary school and then more formally at secondary and tertiary level.

How can we achieve this through school and university education in South Africa?

One way is to bring Geographical Information Systems (GIS) into the classrooms and curriculum. Research has shown that GIS has significant but as yet unrealised potential for supporting spatial thinking across a range of subjects and grades in the curriculum. In some provinces in South Africa, GIS is already part of the Grade 10 to 12 curriculum but is still struggling to get into the actual classroom for a variety of reasons.

To use GIS effectively in the classroom, we need to shift the emphasis from GIS as a “thing” to do and learn, towards an awareness of spatial learning and the role of GIS could have in enhancing our efforts to develop spatial literacy. The introduction of GIS into the curriculum is more than just about the introduction and use of a new technology but really is concerned with engaging students in meaningful spatial learning. Research also suggests that GIS could be used as Mindtool in the classroom. Plenty of food for thought.

Want to know more?

Spatial Literacy education is one of my biggest focus areas and The Global Citizen is a topic I have been researching and working on for a long time. My interest began when I used GIS technologies as the basis for my Masters Thesis and it has grown from there. I have run Spatial Literacy workshops here is South Africa and because I feel that Spatial Literacy is so important to our learners in South Africa, I have recently been involved with the setting up a Facebook page that promotes Spatial Literacy education in our schools.

Alongside this, I have put together an email series centred on the topic of Global Citizenship and Spatial Literacy. The first email is a Free Report about the challenge of Educating Global Citizens. After the report you can expect to receive more pertinent information relevant to educating Global Citizens with a South African bias. For example:

• What Spatial Literacy is and how you can develop Spatial Literacy in your learners
• Spatial Literacy: cognitive thinking and higher-order thinking
• Using GIS as a Cognitive Tool or Mindtool (David Jonassen)
• The link between GIS and Spatial Literacy
• What Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can do for your learners

This email series pulls together the available theory and practice and presents it to you, the educator as food for thought and perhaps as inspiration. The email series will move from theoretical to practical tips and implementation ideas as it progresses.

Sign up to the email series to receive more info about this exciting topic.  http://eepurl.com/bNNgP

If you are on Facebook, then I invite you to become a fan of our Global Citizen page by clicking the LIKE button at the top. Then feel free to add any comments you might or start a discussion about your experiences. Then, please recommend us to any of your friends who you think might also be interested in this topic and related news.

geography, spatial literacy