Training Seems to Close Gender Gap in Spatial Ability
A gender gap in the ability of boys and girls to do spatial reasoning -- a divide that appears to favor boys -- can be eliminated through a specialized education program, new Israeli research suggests.
The scientists focused on 100 first-graders, about half of whom were enrolled in an eight-week training program designed to show the children how to think about spatial information from a holistic point of view rather than one based on particular details, and how to think about spatial geometric pictures from different points of view. The control group of children did not receive the training.
By the end of the two-month program the team found that gender differences in place prior to the program had vanished in
however the first group. This marks the first time that a study has demonstrated such an outcome, according to the researchers.
