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Spatial thinking in primary education in Ireland

Nic Mhuirí, Siún orcid logoORCID: 0000-0001-5008-5573 and Langan, Angela (2025) Spatial thinking in primary education in Ireland. In: 10th Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland (MEI 10), 17-18 October, 2025, Dublin. ISBN https://zenodo.org/records/17398480

Abstract
Spatial thinking has been shown to span a multitude of disciplinary areas and is recognised as a core competence related to mathematical achievement and participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. At this time of intense curriculum change at primary level in Ireland, this paper examines the extent to which spatial thinking is made explicit in the Mathematics and draft Science, Technology and Engineering and Social and Environmental Education (SEE) curriculum documents by analysing curriculum learning outcomes against a typology of spatial skills proposed by Newcombe and Shipley (2015). While many spatial skills are explicit in mathematics curriculum outcomes, they remain implicit in the STEM and SEE curriculum specifications.
Metadata
Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Event Type:Conference
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Spatial thinking, curriculum, STEM, integration, achievement
Subjects:Social Sciences > Education
Social Sciences > Teaching
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Institute of Education
DCU Faculties and Schools > Institute of Education > School of STEM Education, Innovation, & Global Studies
Research Institutes and Centres > Research Centre in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education (CASTel)
Published in: Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland (MEI 10). MEI . Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland. ISBN https://zenodo.org/records/17398480
Publisher:Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland
Official URL:https://sites.google.com/dcu.ie/meiconference/mei-...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:32310
Deposited On:02 Mar 2026 14:28 by Siun Nic Mhuiri . Last Modified 02 Mar 2026 14:28
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