DEVELOPMENT OF SPATIAL ABILITIES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF VISUALISATION MEDIA

摘要

Spatial ability is one of the critical components of human intelligence. It has been proven that it is particularly crucial for success, especially in engineering, where interpreting views of an object presented by drawings, visualizing parts, or manipulating geometry in CAD are fundamental skills. Research has confirmed that spatial skills can be improved through instruction and teaching, for example, sketching and technical drawing, which are also included in the basic engineering classes. This study tested the hypothesis that the development of spatial skills during the fundamental design engineering class can be positively influenced due to the use of different visualization media for sketching and technical drawing tasks, whereas the used visualization media offer varying possibilities of interaction. Seventy students were pre- and post-tested with the Mental Rotation Test. All participants received the same training during the class but were given individual tasks with varying media. The analysis revealed a significant increase in mental rotation performance for all participants throughout the semester with a big effect size. Moreover, the mean performance improvement differed considerably depending on the visualization media and its offered interaction possibilities.