Practical Spatial Literacy – May Theme – Connections, connections, connections

Peter Anthamatten highlights the dilemna between spatial thinking, geography and teaching: “in spite of the fact that ‘spatial thinking’ has been a part of the lexicon of geography educators for many years, there remains little consensus with regard to what this means for teaching.” ( 2010). This article series is about finding practical ways to [...]

Practical Spatial Literacy April Theme: Location (Pt 2)

Part one of this article looked at the subtle differences between spatial literacy and geography education. This second part focuses again on location in spatial literacy. Getting back to the specifics of location in spatial literacy, Malclom McInerney suggests that we need to develop an awareness of the location of features as well as identifying [...]

Practical Spatial Literacy April Theme: Location (Pt 1)

All geographers know that location is part of the 5 themes of Geography, and that location is one of first core concepts taught. Location is usually encapsulated in two simple questions: Where is it? Why is it there? Two concepts are taught when talking about Location: Absolute location provides a definite or specific reference to [...]

Quick Ideas for Developing Spatial Literacy – Battleships

Many of us have played battleships, on paper, on a special bought game or on the computer. Battleship is a fun game but it is also a great learning tool. It’s a fun way to improve learners’ graphing, critical thinking and spatial literacy skills. Battleships is a game of strategy, memory and logic. Grids and [...]

Find past exam papers quickly

Past exam papers are normally a mission to find. TestGrab, a new service launched recently by EvaluNet, offers past exam papers for download from their web site, all based on the grade 12 matric exams for South Africa. Subjects included are: Accounting Afrikaans Business Studies CAT Consumer Studies Economics English Geography History Hospitality Studies IT [...]

Practical Spatial Literacy March Theme: Direction

Our Spatial Literacy theme for March is one of the simplest of Spatial Literacy concepts, that of Direction. This falls into the Location category (see my previous article about categories). In South Africa, we start teaching Direction in early grades but formally in Grades 4, 5 and 6 as it is an integral part of [...]

A Practical Approach to Developing Spatial Literacy – Introduction

DO YOU KNOW? What do packing the boot of a car, assembling a child’s toy, and following map or driving directions all have in common? 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 [...]

Spatial Literacy in South Africa

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.

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