Preservice primary teachers’ three dimensional thinking skills

Abstract

This study investigates primary school preservice teachers’ abilities in relation to figures, one of the basic concepts of geometry, and more specifically, to name figures; to draw solid figures from their given corresponding nets and the nets from the solids; and to sketch a three-dimensional structure on the plane from a given perspective. The sample consisted of 62 year 1 and 119 year 3 students registered in the Primary School Education programme at Selçuk University, Education Faculty, Department of Elementary Education in the 2007-2008 academic year. The study had a survey research design and a test consisting of open-ended items was administered for data collection. Descriptive statistics and t-tests were used in data analysis. The results indicated that preservice teachers encountered difficulties in naming rectangular prism-square prism and rectangular pyramid-rectangular prism as well as in drawing these three-dimensional solid figures from their corresponding nets. Moreover, first year students achieved a higher average success rate than third year students. In their undergraduate studies, preservice teachers were not provided with opportunities to take part in the process via a curriculum which involves activities, materials and projects that develop spatial skills.