ASSESSING AND IMPROVING THE BELOW AVERAGE VISUALIZATION ABILITIES OF A GROUP OF MINORITY ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS

摘要

Visualization is a significant factor in the creation of mental models and in the interaction with the often abstract concepts that are important for success in engineering and technology related majors. An ongoing study has found that a particular sample of minority engineering and technology students at a historically black university scored statistically significantly lower than average on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Visualization of Rotations when administered as a pretest in a 2D-focused mechanical drawing course. The posttest scores of these same subjects, after a semester of instruction, were still not up to average. Because of the inadequate increase in posttest scores, remediation that focused on sketching and other exercises to improve visualization was implemented in subsequent offerings of the course. The posttest scores of those students receiving remediation improved to bring the mean up to average.