
Why Don’t We Value Spatial Intelligence? - tokenadult
http://gettingsmart.com/blog/2011/12/why-don%E2%80%99t-we-value-spatial-intelligence/
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brandall10
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein

"When he moved from Germany to Switzerland at the age of sixteen, Einstein
spent a year at a school that emphasized independent thought, free action and
personal responsibility. He thrived in a learning environment without rote
drills, memorization and force-fed facts.

Based on the philosophy of a Swiss educator named Pestalozzi, the school
helped students move through a series of steps from hands-on observations to
intuition, conceptualization, imagination and visual imagery.

“Visual understanding is the essential and only true means of teaching how to
judge things correctly,” wrote Pestaslozzi, and “the learning of numbers and
language must be definitely subordinated"

...It was at this school that Einstein, age sixteen, started picturing what it
would be like to ride along a beam of light.”

[http://sparkmygenius.com/2007/07/myth-busted-einstein-on-
edu...](http://sparkmygenius.com/2007/07/myth-busted-einstein-on-education/)

~~~
Jach
One problem is not everyone has imagination--just like there are some photo-
memory people there are those with no capability of 'picturing' anything in
their mind.

Another is that people's mental imagery is probably very different, how can
you teach it directly? If the school is good at getting people to discover
that mental imagery on their own it will probably work out, but it's hard to
teach it to someone who doesn't share it. (I'd love to see some other
psychology studies on this, I think I first ran across the view from a Feynman
video: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj4y0EUlU-Y&feature=BFa&#...</a> )

~~~
brandall10
We all played with building blocks, no? Frank Lloyd Wright credited Froebel
Gifts, a type of building block, as being instrumental in his early
development "For several years I sat at the little Kindergarten table-top...
and played... with the cube, the sphere and the triangle—these smooth wooden
maple blocks... All are in my fingers to this day..."

Anyway, here is a study summary that may be of interest.

[http://gse.buffalo.edu/org/buildingblocks/writings/Building%...](http://gse.buffalo.edu/org/buildingblocks/writings/Building%20Blocks%20Exec%20Sum.pdf)

"Building Blocks is a NSF-funded PreK to grade 2 software-based mathematics
curriculum development project, designed to comprehensively address the most
recent mathematics standards. Building Blocks materials were created upon
explicit design principles and a nine-phase formative model—they are truly
research-based (details are provided in Clements, 2002a; Clements, 2002b;
Sarama & Clements, in press)... The materials are designed to help children
extend and mathematize their everyday activities, from building blocks to art
to songs and stories to puzzles...

...The results are illustrated in two graphs. We computed effect sizes using
the accepted benchmarks of .25 as indicating practical significance (i.e.,
educationally meaningful), .5 as indicating moderate strength, and .8 as
indicating a large effect (Cohen, 1977). The effect sizes comparing BB
children’s posttest to the control children’s posttest were .85 and 1.44 for
number and geometry, respectively, and the effect sizes comparing BB
children’s posttest to their pretest (measuring achievement gains) were 1.71
and 2.12. Therefore, all effects were positive and large. Achievement gains
were comparable to the coveted “2-sigma” effect of excellent individual
tutoring"

~~~
Jach
> We all played with building blocks, no? Frank Lloyd Wright credited Froebel
> Gifts, a type of building block, as being instrumental in his early
> development

We've all played with building blocks, but few of us are Frank Lloyd Wright.
Of course, the difference here is that he played with them for several years
whereas I'm told I played with them but can form no crisp memories of such an
event. (I don't have many crisp memories from that age and I'm cautious of
vague memories without additional witnesses just being made-up.) I don't
imagine I would have enjoyed being forced to play with them up through 6th
grade, nor have been more Frankish, so I'm finding it hard to believe him that
it was the blocks themselves that made Frank different. (Though after a little
reflection, I do remember extensions to building blocks through maybe 6th
grade, such as the rubber band pegs, various polygon plastic 'biscuits'[1],
plastic-log-cabin-building cylinders, and connectible cubes. As well as 2D
jigsaw puzzles at home and we had a couple neat 3D puzzles in 6th grade. I
never liked Lego but I like Minecraft.)

Thanks for the study, though. You should emphasize the last sentence like the
PDF does, the "2-sigma" effect is one of the reasons why I and many others
think one-to-one tutoring is the best we can do and ways to cheat that are
definitely worth pursuing. (
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_Sigma_Problem> ) Other writings on
their site are also interesting (and screenshots show their age)
[http://gse.buffalo.edu/org/buildingblocks/projectWritings.ht...](http://gse.buffalo.edu/org/buildingblocks/projectWritings.htm)

[1]Actually, apparently these things are the 2D "building blocks" referenced
in the study whereas Frank seems to be talking about the 3D "building blocks"
that are actually big and blocky.

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fleitz
Who is we? At best you can say that the school system and large bureaucracies
don't value these skills. Certainly Apple and the British empire value Ive's
contribution to design immensely.

The Tony Starks of the world are not meant to be low level grunts, keep in
mind that the school system is designed to produce interchangeable parts to
work in large manufacturing and bureaucratic organizations such as fortune
100s, the government and the military. The levels of leaders who self select
out is acceptable and therefore the system will not be changed.

The school system is not for the betterment of the people who go through it;
it is for the benefit of the owners. It's not a bug that our school system
produces learned helplessness it's a feature.

~~~
Arcanum-XIII
Spatial intelligence is not always related to design things. I'm way more at
ease with spatial concept, and in direct way with structure, than with word
and number. But I can translate all my mental image into words and numbers,
albeit not perfectly — this give me the ability to program, learn new things
pretty fast, manipulate mathematics... the hard part is going back to the
world of symbol.

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jacobolus
For those who never saw it, Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED talk is as amazing as it
ever was; go watch it right away:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_crea...](http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html)

~~~
_Y_
Indeed I also quite liked his RSAnimate talk on
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U>

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devs1010
I think spatial intelligence can help with programming, I'm not real up on all
the different categories of intelligence, but I think I tend to be more of a
spatial thinker which could be part of why I have more and more come to like
designing complex applications with different, smaller components because when
I visualize the entire application in my mind I see it in basically a 3D space
as far as how the components interact

~~~
ams6110
Absolutely, visualization is commonly done, everything from ER diagrams to
object models to flow charts to the little blocks and arrows drawings we made
to understand pointers and data structures.

~~~
Tycho
Even just tracing how all the different functions in a program fit together is
kind of a spatial task... Or something that has more in common with spatial
reasoning than with numeracy or verbal reasoning.

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stonemetal
_And they certainly don’t design these devices by writing an essay on the
topic or even by solving a mathematical equation. Rather, they imagine it in
their minds eye, and then they draw it or construct it._

Remind me not to drive on that person's bridge. Sorry but if you can't hack
the math to make sure your invention isn't going to explode and kill people
then perhaps you should put down the power tools. Almost every modern
invention is heavily math driven, because you have to know it will work not
just be able to visualize and assemble it. Love that red herring about the
nobel laureates, after all it has been shown that after a certain point drive
is much more important than intelligence when determining outcomes.

~~~
kvnn
"Almost every modern invention is heavily math driven" - citation?

Anyway, no one is advocating the building of bridges by school kids who can
build things without math. The article advocates giving school kids who have
great spacial skills, but not apparently great math or written skills, a
chance to participate in technical greatness.

~~~
leoedin
Engineering school is almost entirely math. It's applied to structures, to
electrical circuits, to fluid flow, but the essence of it is all the same -
using math to describe things.

Yes, a lot of design doesn't require calculations to be done on the spot, but
almost every design made by an engineer will be informed from the beginning by
their knowledge of math.

It's hard to think of a modern invention that's as big as the internal
combustion engine or the aeroplane, but any recently designed item you buy
today has had math applied to almost every facet of it. The design process for
a product case uses extensive geometry, the design of gearboxes uses extensive
mathematical modelling - pretty much every mechanism that's manufactured will
be first described mathematically.

Even things that don't have complicated mathematical models describing them
will have had some form of math applied to inform the initial design process.
You can't design a lever without taking into account it's length, the moment
it applies etc - that's all maths!

Technical greatness in our world _requires_ math. You can't design and build a
truly unique and functional device without applying some form of math to it.

Certainly spacial awareness is absolutely fantastic. It lets a designer
envisage a concept in their mind, think through how something will work and
identify the pitfalls of a concept before anything is put to paper, but it's
not a replacement for mathematical ability when it comes to actually designing
a functional mechanism or mechanical system.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Engineering school is taught by people who were good at Engineering school.
ITs a tight, closed loop with high gain. That's not an argument about what
Engineering school Should Be.

Of course mathematics is important. But the initial design is done, I would
say ALWAYS done, by intuition. The math is then applied.

Do you know how many gifted math students in my Engineering college could not
begin to imagine the layout of a circuit, or a piece of software, or even a
bridge, without looking it up in a book? I was a grader for 2 years, and it
was shocking how lacking most folks are in this way.

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bediger
In this article, "value" means "perform standardized testing for". In that
sense, we don't value much at all, because even the things we test for
("verbal", "math") we reduce to some inane blather for the purposes of
testing.

From a larger viewpoint, what does this author think we do for football
players? Do we not "value" them? In large part, what the players do is the
"spatial intelligence" of the article. Do we not "value" airplane pilots? Same
thing there.

~~~
ndefinite
Agreed!

~~~
ndefinite
I got minus'd a point for that? I still agree though. The first thing that
comes to mind when I think of the "elite" spatially intelligent are
professional athletes and race car drivers.

Value is subjective and some fields value traits that vary from what is valued
in other fields.

To be a successful mathematician, you don't need to be particularly capable
when it comes to spacial intelligence. The article highlights concerns but
reality is different; the statistical analysis I conduct in a day requires
very little spacial intelligence. The most productive athletes in my city do
require a superior level of spacial intelligence and they are compensated
incredibly well for their contributions (paid more in a year than I am likely
to be paid in may entire career).

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wccrawford
This article misses the entire point of school. It isn't to challenge kids.
It's to teach them. If there were something to teach there, they'd have
classes and tests on it. Grades aren't for bragging rights.

I'm saying this as one of those kids that wished school taught me more. I was
bored constantly. And I still wish that schools would teach kids at the level
they need to be engaged and want to learn.

But tests for spacial intelligence, just to have tested it? Why would we pay
tax dollars for that? If the kid is gifted, they'll know it and automatically
move into a field that uses it. (Or not, as they wish.) There's nothing to
teach.

~~~
Tycho
But the point of _test_ (exams) is simply to separate people and decide which
candidates are best suited for further development. Tests should absolutely
try to cover as many of the essential skills necessary for the various careers
open to pupils, regardless of how easily those skills can actually be taught
by schools.

It would probably result in identifying pupils with potential that previously
would have been ignored in favour of pupils who were only superficially
superior. It would also encourage pupils who possess more ability in that area
to put more effort into their academic careers in general. And would help
pupils with other academic strengths to identify fields which will be more
difficult for them (there was a former maths teacher on my IT postgraduate
conversion course who was really surprised that she struggled with
programming, since she thought her maths ability would have made it a shoe-
in).

 _And_ , to say spatial intelligence cannot be taught seems to be jumping the
gun a bit. Have we really even tried to teach it?

~~~
wccrawford
Most tests in our schools are not to help direct the students. They're to make
sure they hit a minimum level. That's it. I agree that there are a few that
are designed to help a student direct their ambition, but they are few and far
between. In fact, I can't say I've ever taken one. The closest thing would be
the college entrance exam that basically just tells the students what their
worst subjects are, and forces them into the lowest classes for those. Not
really a direction.

But let's talk about teaching spatial intelligence. How would you do that?
What techniques are employed while using it? Has anyone ever written a book on
it? (A quick search says 'yes', but they appear to be ridiculous self-help
books.)

Honestly, I'd love to read more about it, but there doesn't see to be much. I
happen to be really, really good at things like re-arranging furniture because
I can always tell when something is going to fit or not. I've called it down
to less than half an inch before when reshuffling an entire room. What
techniques did I use? Intuition. I can't teach someone that. And I can't see
them teaching me, either.

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newhouseb
John Hopkin's Center for Talented Youth summer camps (aka nerd camp) have been
offering the Spatial Test Battery as a qualification method since I was in
middle school (~10 years ago). See <http://cty.jhu.edu/ts/stb.html> and for a
sample subsection see <http://cty.jhu.edu/ts/stbsampSD.html>. I never took it
(you could also take the SATs as well) but as a heavily technical person my
brain does backflips of excitement solving the sample problems.

~~~
mattquinn
CTY was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this article
submission. I took the spatial test back in middle school and it was fairly
difficult, but that's what's to love about CTY - they make everything
challenging to get a true understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. K-12
and higher education could do worse than to mirror some of the aspects of CTY.

------
Shenglong
I hope this doesn't come out ignorant, but how often does someone possess a
phenomenal level of spatial intelligence, yet very little verbal/mathematical
intelligence?

I'm not arguing that there isn't something wrong with current education, but I
feel the point here may be misrepresented.

~~~
enjo
Maybe not "very little" but I would claim to fit this mold. I think it's made
me an excellent programmer.

I'm... competent (at best) at math. I'm below-average as a writer. However,
mechanically I do very well. I can visualize and understand how things fit
together very easily. I have a sort of inherent sense of order.

That comes in really handy when working on complex systems. In computer
science efficiency is often found in organizing systems, not necessarily in
pure calculation (map-reduce would fall under that for instance, even if there
is a strong mathematical basis).

Spatial reasoning is actually one of the biggest things I look for in hiring.

~~~
edanm
"I'm below-average as a writer."

How did you decide that? I'm really curious here, since only based on your
comment, you seem above-average to me.

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ams6110
I definitely remember standardized test questions such as identifying what the
shadow of an object should look like, what rotations of various shapes would
look like, etc. But there were usually only a few of these. I don't
specifically recall if any were on the SAT but definitely were on some of the
tests I took in middle and high school.

------
Confusion
The article doesn't explain what 'spatial intelligence' actually _is_. There's
a link to a paper that goes on and on about 'spatial ability', but never
defines it.

As if 'IQ' wasn't useless enough, they had to come up with with 'EQ' and now
everyone and their brother tacks 'intelligence' after a phrase they think
should be desirable.

Not to mention the fact that every test I've ever taken did include a section
testing this 'spatial ability' (the paper contains examples, so I can infer
what it means).

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calibraxis
Anyone interested in this should probably read Seymour Papert's _Mindstorms_:
there are multiple routes to mathematical ability. (As well as, of course,
other abilities). Mentions the story of a child he observed who he believed
was turned mathophobic by school — ironically due to his high verbal ability.
The school actively penalized a verbal route to math which likely would've
served him best.

------
EREFUNDO
The problem is that it is currently easier to measure math and language
skills. It would also be difficult to teach because it is less mechanical. But
I believe advances in CAD's and user interfaces would eventually help in
creating a curriculum for developing spatial intelligence.

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ww520
They do test spatial intelligence. Dental entrance exams test your spatial
intelligence, like folding 3-D boxes, hidden surface deduction, etc.

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mcdowall
I can relate to this, my maths is pretty decent, english language something I
always struggled with but I always excelled at visual spacial 'tests', case in
point being the 7 rounds tests I had to take for UK Air Traffic Control, they
certainly value visual spacial skills!.

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lionhearted
The obvious answer is that verbal intelligence is what's largely used in
negotiation, recognition, and diffusing of ideas to non-visual people... see,
ie, Jobs getting a lion's share of credit for his various teams' work.

Mind you, I think Jobs deserves most of that credit. Great verbal ability
captivates damn near everyone, and pulls the world forwards, whereas great
visual/spatial requires someone equally skilled to truly appreciate.

Anyways. I think things are going to get better, sharing credit and
humanitarian ethics, along with transparency rising will help a lot. But to
answer the question, "Why Don’t We Value Spatial Intelligence?" I think
Occam's answer would be, "Because Spatially Intelligent People Don't Always
Verbally Promote Themselves Well."

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nosse
If there would have been spatial tests in school, I might have thought of it
as work. And if I had thought so I might not have played with my mechanic
Lego's all afternoons.

But it would bee good to test spatial ability when applying to university
level mechanics..

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sharmajai
Strange that the author doesn't mention Howard Gardner [1], who pioneered the
_theory of multiple intelligences_ [2] which lists spatial intelligence as one
of the intelligence form.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Gardner>

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligence...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences)

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cmfoster
Fact, Doc brown invented the flux capacitor. What a great invention, I may
have to go forward to the past and change the education system.

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hiroprot
This made me think of Ender's Game (finished re-reading it last night).

------
Tichy
I doubt complicated machinery can be built without maths.

~~~
jodrellblank
Says the multi-billion cell evolved mathless organism.

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JVirissimo
Is this a joke? Last time I checked, professional athletes make huge amounts
of cash.

