Razonamiento espacial y rendimiento académico

the paper reports an enquiry aimed at: (1) assessing the spatial reasoning level reached by students admitted to the university entrance course at the architecture, design and urban planning school of the university of buenos aires, (2) examining the relation between spatial reasoning and academic achievement, (3) exploring the relation between spatial reasoning and secondary schooling, (4) evaluating spatial reasoning progress at the end of the course, and (5) ascertaining possible gender - related differences in spatial reasoning and academic achievement. current literature is reviewed, focusing on the concept of spatial reasoning, the skills involved, gender - related differences and academic achievement, with special reference to technology studies. two prevailing trends are identified: the factorial approach and cognitive. explanations of male spatial skills advantage stress biological or environmental aspects or a combination of both. students' poor spatial reasoning performance at the start of university highlights the need to develop spatial competence at the lower levels of schooling, particularly in secondary school, within an integral education approach. this would en- compass all the essential dimensions of the human being, rather than concentrate on disembodied rationality. research points to mental visualisation and graphic communication abilities as necessary components of drawing and design. training in object manipulation, block building and the sketching of observed objects has been found to enhance performance in activities specifically related to the contents taught, although transfer to test situations would seem harder to accomplish. spatial skills training should, therefore, become part of university curriculum, especially in the case of technology courses. the sample was made up of 596 students enrolled in the drawing course. a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test intact group design was used and the results were linked to gender-related att