Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Gender Differences in the Spatial Skills of Engineering Students

Assessing the Self Efficacy and Spatial Ability of Engineering Students from Multiple Disciplines

“…Data analysis showed that an engineering student's self efficacy, related to her/his spatial ability, is directly correlated with her/his spatial ability, as measured by a subset of the PSVT:R. This was not the case however for undeclared students tested. Furthermore, males and females had equivalent self efficacy; however, males scored higher on the PSVT:R than females, which supports past research [22,23]. Finally, a student's spatial ability and self efficacy improved after a semester of CAD software training, regardless of the type of CAD software used (2-D versus 3-D).…”

“…What is interesting however is that the spatial abilities of students in both types of CAD courses improved from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester, which supports findings from past research [15]. Similar results were seen with respect to gender in past research [22,23], (see Fig. 5); however, there was no significant difference between the increases in scores on the PSVT:R between males and females (t(82) = -0.929, p > 0.3).…”

Spatial skills as predictors of success in first-year engineering

“…Table V includes the average scores obtained by discipline for the three programs under consideration as well as for other programs of interest. Also included in this table are results obtained using these instruments at various other institutions, including those in the U.S., Poland, and Germany [11]. All of the data presented in Table V is for first-year students only.…”

The development and assessment of multimedia software for improving 3‐D spatial visualization skills

“…It has also been shown that a person's spatial skills are the most signi®cant predictor of success in their ability to work successfully with computers in performing database manipulations [3] and there is some evidence that these skills are critical to success in working in a computer-based 3-D design environment [4]. Unfortunately, many studies have shown that the spatial visualization skills of women lag signi®cantly behind those of their male counterparts [5,6] which could be a hindrance to the success of women in scienti®c and technological ®elds. This article describes work done at Michigan Technological University in developing spatial skills of ®rst-year engineering students and on the assessment of multimedia software designed to enhance visualization skills.…”