DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING TOOL FOR PROMOTION OF SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CHILDREN DURING CONCRETE OPERATIONAL PERIOD
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Date
2020-06
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Publisher
AAU, Jorhat
Abstract
Spatial intelligence, one of the nine types of intelligence proposed by
Howard Gardner (1983) has been highlighted in recent years and regarded as an integral
component of human cognition. Research studies have provided evidences of relation of
spatial intelligence to achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) streams. In the present study the investigator attempted to develop a learning
tool for promotion of spatial intelligence in children during concrete operational period.
An Embedded mixed method research design was adopted for the study. The sample of
the study constituted of 120 children belonging to the age group of 8-11 years, who
were selected randomly from three schools of Jorhat district, Assam. The young
people‘s version of ‗Multiple intelligence test‘ developed by Chislett and Chapman
(2005) was used as quantitative technique to assess the type of intelligence found
among children under the study. In addition to it, observation and interview methods
were also used. The data collected from both quantitative and qualitative methods were
analysed and the results were obtained after triangulation of quantitative and qualitative
data. Seven types of intelligences were identified and inter-correlations between the
types of intelligences were analysed. Positive inter-correlations found among different
types of intelligence indicated that, spatial intelligence of children can be developed by
administering spatial tasks to children, irrespective of the type of dominant intelligence
they possess. The topological framework of spatial skills proposed by Uttal et al. (2013)
was followed for preparation of spatial tasks, which consists of four dimensions i.e.
intrinsic-static, intrinsic-dynamic, extrinsic-static and extrinsic-dynamic. Spatial tasks in
all the four dimensions were prepared and difficulty level of each task was assessed. It
was found from the study that, the task difficulties of dynamic tasks were more than
static tasks. Moreover it was found that, the tasks under the dimension of extrinsicdynamic
were more difficult as compared to other three dimensions. A 2 way ANOVA
was conducted to analyse the main effects and interactive effect of types of intelligence
and dimensions of spatial tasks on performance of children in spatial tasks. The two
way ANOVA test indicated that maximum differences in the performance of children in
spatial tasks were accounted by different dimensions of spatial tasks (ηp
2= 0.516) than
the types of intelligence (ηp
2= 0.219). Based on the analysis carried out, finally a
learning tool, consisting of forty numbers of spatial tasks covering all four dimensions,
was developed for promotion of spatial intelligence in children, during concrete
operational period.