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Mind, Brain, and Education

Volume 7, Issue 3
Research

Teachers' Spatial Anxiety Relates to 1st‐ and 2nd‐Graders' Spatial Learning

Elizabeth A. Gunderson

Corresponding Author

Department of Psychology, Temple University

Address correspondence to Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Temple University, Department of Psychology, 1701 North 13th St., Philadelphia, PA 19122; email:

liz.gunderson@temple.edu

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Gerardo Ramirez

Department of Psychology and Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

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Sian L. Beilock

Department of Psychology, University of Chicago

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Susan C. Levine

Department of Psychology, University of Chicago

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First published: 16 August 2013
https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12027
Cited by: 9

ABSTRACT

Teachers' anxiety about an academic domain, such as math, can impact students' learning in that domain. We asked whether this relation held in the domain of spatial skill, given the importance of spatial skill for success in math and science and its malleability at a young age. We measured 1st‐ and 2nd‐grade teachers' spatial anxiety (N = 19) and students' spatial skill (N = 132). Teachers' spatial anxiety significantly predicted students' end‐of‐year spatial skill, even after accounting for students' beginning‐of‐year spatial skill, phonological working memory, grade level, and teachers' math anxiety. Since spatial skill is not a stand‐alone part of the curriculum like math or reading, teachers with high levels of spatial anxiety may simply avoid incorporating spatial activities in the classroom. Results suggest that addressing teachers' spatial anxieties may improve spatial learning in early elementary school.

Number of times cited: 9

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