Pre-service Teachers’ Visuospatial Cognition: 2D to 3D Transition

Abstract

This research focused on first-year university students’ visuospatial cognition in terms of producing three-dimensional (3D) representations of objects from two-dimensional (2D) views. The research was important since students often had difficulty with 2D to 3D transition activities. A synthesis from the literature established a 2D to 3D conceptual framework for an effective 2D to 3D transition. In essence, the 2D to 3D conceptual framework encompassed encode, integrate and construct as the principle facets in 2D to 3D visuospatial cognition. Students in this study were pre-service teachers enrolled for an engineering graphics module at a university in KwaZulu–Natal province of South Africa. The study was grounded on the generally accepted understanding that the ability to produce 3D images of an object from its 2D views is related to visuospatial skills. In the context of this study, visuospatial skills were viewed from the perspective of mentally visualising 3D objects from their underlying 2D views. The study followed a qualitative design via think-aloud protocol tasks and document analysis. A sample of five students was purposively selected from a population of 100 engineering graphics students. Findings revealed that students with superior spatial imagery ability achieved better success than those who relied on an object imagery process. Furthermore, findings disclosed that students who did well in 2D to 3D activities did not necessarily have greater procedural knowledge and understanding than their counterparts. These findings support the necessity of the inclusion of visuospatial-type activities in engineering graphics instructional material over and above the largely procedural nature of activities that permeates this field.