Abstract:

Spatial thinking concerns the ability to imagine objects and manipulate them mentally. It is not only essential for fulfilling everyday tasks, such as using a GPS, filling the fridge or organising furniture in a room, but it is also a predictor for successful performance in STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This field is nowadays a cornerstone in our society, as it promotes economic growth and the creation of new jobs. Nonetheless, the representation of women in this domain is considerably smaller than that of men, which translates into less women accessing jobs with higher salaries and career opportunities. Among the different reasons for that, the focus of this work is on the gender gap in spatial thinking that favours males. Although the origins of these differences are yet not clear, several evidence confirms that despite there exist a genetic component, both females and males can improve their spatial skills through practice.

Gender differences in spatial tasks performance have been widely examined, focusing mainly in mental rotation and spatial orientation. However, there are no known studies that aim at examining these differences in various categories of spatial thinking. This work presents an analysis of gender differences for spatial ability and visual perception categories, based on the outcomes of the spatial thinking skills online training platform RIF 3.0 on users aged from 7 to 16 years old from Spain and Austria (N=20.352) in between November 2019 and June 2022. Activities meant for developing visualization, form constancy, position in space, transformation in space, object combination, spatial visualization, mental rotation, spatial relations and spatial orientation skills are used. The results were statistically analysed and compared. Preliminary findings suggest that there are gender differences in some of the subcategories of spatial ability and visual perception studied, yet some of these differences favour girls over boys. This work intends to provide new insights into the matter of gender gap in spatial skills in order to generate well-grounded knowledge to adjust instruction to the needs of students.

Keywords:

Spatial thinking, gender differences, STEM, spatial ability, visualization.