The effect of activities designed for spatial reasoning elements on eighth grade students' spatial reasoning skills, spatial ability self-report, and spatial anxiety

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of classroom activities developed for the elements of spatial reasoning on spatial reasoning skills, spatial ability self-report, and spatial anxiety of eighth grade students. The study was conducted using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, including experimental and control groups, among the quantitative research methods. The participants of this study consisted of 50 eighth-grade students from two classes in a public school in Denizli in the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. The duration of the research implementation is eight weeks. While the activities developed for the elements of spatial reasoning (mental rotation, spatial visualization, and spatial orientation) were applied to the experimental group, the lessons in the control group were carried out with the existing curriculum. The activities developed for the elements of spatial reasoning were developed by the researcher. The data collection tools of the study are the Spatial Reasoning Scale, the Spatial Ability Self-Report Scale and the Spatial Anxiety Scale. While the T-test was applied to the test scores showing normal distribution, the Mann-Whitney U test was applied to the non-parametric test scores. The results of the research showed a significant difference in favor of the experimental group between the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups for the mental rotation and spatial orientation elements of spatial reasoning. It was concluded that there was no significant difference between the post-test scores of the groups in spatial visualization. No significant difference was found between the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups in spatial ability self-report and spatial anxiety.