Spatial Imagination Development through Planar Section of Cube Buildings in Educational Process

Abstract

The National Curriculum for Upper Secondary Education in Slovakia (ISCED 3A) specifies the mathematical standards and lesson quantity in Slovak schools. The major topic in ISCED 3A is stereometry, considered as one of the most problematic areas for students by a large majority of mathematics teachers. In general, the results of a large-scale opinion survey indicate that a high level of spatial imagination is necessary to solve stereometrical tasks. Slovak and Czech researchers in this field concur in the conviction that an appropriate level of spatial imagination can be systematically developed through selected types of tasks by using special methods, strategies and suitable forms of visualization. The results of several studies emphasize the need for the introduction of these types of tasks also with respect to the implementation of ICT in the educational process. In our paper, we analyze in detail the conclusions of Slovak and Czech mathematics experts and university teachers whose research field is focused on the development of spatial and geometric imagination. Based on the findings that the subject area is developed mainly through planar sections of solids, we propose a new inspirational type of tasks on sections of cube buildings of special solids constructed from multiple cubes. We discuss the results of pilot tests in the recommendations, where we analyse various aspects of the educational process in regard to the implementation of appropriate geometry software Cabri 3D in teaching support.