How students currently think about spatial ideas will influence how they respond to the activities provided for them, and hence what they are able to learn from them. As students’ thinking about space develops, it goes through a series of characteristic phases. Recognising these common patterns of thinking should help you to interpret students’ responses to activities, to understand why they seem to be able to do some things and not others, and also why some students may be having difficulty in achieving certain outcomes while others are not. It should also help you to provide the challenges students need to move their thinking forward, to refine their half-formed ideas, to overcome any misconceptions they might have and hence to achieve the outcomes.

"SCIS: 1593631"--t.p. verso. "FIRST016"--t.p. verso.