SPATIAL ABILITY, 3D MODELING AND STYLES OF THINKING IN RELATION TO BRAIN HEMISPHERE DOMINANCE

Abstract

The progress of neuroscience and the understanding of children's styles of thinking are opening up new teaching styles that take into account differences in individual cognitive perception. Students can be classified into three distinctive perceptive types, according to the pronounced activity of one cerebral hemisphere in their thinking and information processing: left-hemisphere, right-hemisphere, and integrative type that does not exhibit a considerable dominance of one particular hemisphere. The purpose of the research was to establish differences in the 3D modeling encouraged progression of spatial ability between the left-hemisphere, right-hemisphere and integrative types of students. Computerized 3D modeling employed during technical extra-curricular activity in lower secondary school (grades 6 to 9) may affect the spatial ability of students, which according to other studies, appears to be predominantly connected with the right brain hemisphere. Research was conducted among a variety of lower secondary school students across Slovenia aged 11 – 15 years. Data on spatial ability and its development was collected using a hybrid spatial intelligence test conducted on two separate occasions, while assessment of the learning perception type of students – depending on hemispheric dominance – was obtained using a self-evaluation questionnaire. The 3D modeling of technical objects and objects drawn in orthographic or isometric projection was done with the software Trimble SketchUp. Key words: cognitive development, 3D modeling, hemispheric dominance, spatial ability.