Seventh grade students' spatial ability and their attitudes towards geometry

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate seventh grade students’ spatial ability and attitudestowards geometry according to various variables and to decide whether the spatial ability and the attitudestowards geometry were related. The study had the exploratory correlation research model. The study’s sampleconsisted of 170 seventh grade students who were from four secondary schools in a province in the south of theMarmara Region. The sample was determined through the convenience sampling method. The study’s data werecollected, by using the Spatial Ability Test and Attitudes towards Geometry Scale. The collected data wasdecoded by the use of the statistical package program and descriptive statistics were calculated. The t test forindependent samples was conducted to decide whether the students’ scores of spatial ability test and attitudestowards geometry scale differed according to their gender and their likes to draw, and the one way analysis ofvariance on independent groups was used to decide whether the scores differed according to students’mathematics achievement. The correlation coefficient was calculated to decide the degree of relationshipbetween the scores of spatial ability test and the attitudes towards geometry scale. It was found that the students’scores of spatial ability test were not too high and their scores of attitudes towards geometry scale were high; thatstudents' spatial ability was significantly and positively related to their attitudes towards geometry at a low level.Besides, it was found that the students’ scores of spatial ability test and attitudes towards geometry scale did notdiffer according to their gender and their likes to draw; differed according to their mathematics achievement.