A Research On Analyzing Spatial Imagination Of Students Of Arts At Senior High School From The Test Paper

Solid geometry is of great significance in high school math teaching and the crucial purpose of solid geometry teaching pointed both in the Syllabus and the Standards is to help students develop their capacity of spatial imagination which is one of the basic skills required to be trained in math teaching. Geometry teaching at senior high school is very crucial in cultivating students'spatial imagination. It is very helpful for students who are interested in humanities and social science to study solid geometry which can enable them to better understand the space where human-beings exist. In the mean time, the directness of geometric graphs facilitates students'autonomous exploration and spatial imagination. Students can have fun through observation, experiments, operation, assumption, etc., which helps develop their capability in spatial imagination, reasoning and argumentation, logical thinking,expressing and communicating in geometric language. Students of arts are a special group at senior high school with their own characteristics in math learning and thinking. Solid geometry learning is a very difficult point in their math learning.The thesis first analyses in detail spatial ability and special imagination ability, spatial conception and spatial imagination ability in the method of literature analysis. Then the concept, structure and layers of special imagination ability are discussed in the light of theoretical discussion. Spatial imagination ability is a key element and a major type of imagination ability. Spatial imagination ability consists of three layers: special conception, ability to construct geometric representations and ability to operate geometric representations. Spatial conception is the basis for the cultivation of spatial imagination ability.The testing items used in this thesis are the major items employed in 2007 College Entrance Exam testing comprehensive knowledge and ability in solid geometry. 616 answer sheets of students of arts are chosen at random as research samples. After items analysis and setting up marking standards, marking and analysis are conducted on the samples. The result shows that these students of arts are weak in spatial imagination. They have weak conceptions in space and problems in constructing spatial representation and operational ability which leads to difficulty in solving problems in the method of vector.The suggestions put forward in the thesis is as he following: the transition from plane geometry to solid geometry and intuitional method should be emphasized in math teaching; strategies on improving spatial imagination are the training of observation, correctly drawing graphs, enriching representations, using comparison and creative imagination.