Spatial Thinking in the Teaching of Geography

Abstract

At the intersection of the Human Being experience with the World lies spatial thinking. It is made of three elements: mixture of spatial concepts, tools of representation and processes of reasoning. With the awakening of interest in this matter, in 2005 a psychometric test that allows to measure it emerged – STAT. Since that year, it has been applied in several places worldwide, not only to university students, but also to students in grades equivalent to the Portuguese 3^rd Cycle and Secondary School. While developing a Report on an Internship in Teaching of Geography, there was an opportunity to apply the STAT to the three classes that made said internship (8^th, 10^th and 11^th grade). At the intersection of the performance of these with other investigative projects to the same age groups, we could conclude that, even though there is a replica of factors evidenced in literature with these students, there is a superior performance in the classes from this study in comparison to other investigative projects.