Applying spatial thinking in social science research

Making a Place for Space: Spatial Thinking in Social Science.

New technologies and multilevel data sets that include geographic identifiers have heightened sociologists' interest in spatial analysis. I review several of the key concepts, measures, and methods that are brought into play in this work, and offer examples of their application in a variety of substantive fields. I argue that the most effective use of the new tools requires greater emphasis on ...

Spatial Thinking in Undergraduate Science Education

Spatial ability has been dubbed the "Sleeping Giant" in education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) (Lubinsky, 2010). We know, from research done over the past several decades, that visuospatial thinking is central to the learning and doing of science (see Ramadas, 2009 for a review), and leads to success in many professions related to science and mathematics (Hegarty, ...

Social Thinking®: Science, Pseudoscience, or Antiscience?

Today, there are several interventions that can be implemented with individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Most of these interventions have limited to no empirical evidence demonstrating their effectiveness, yet they are widely implemented in home, school, university, and community settings. In 1996, Green wrote a chapter in which she outlined three levels of science: evidence sci...

The Role of Spatial Thinking in Undergraduate Science Education

Toward critical spatial thinking in the social sciences and humanities.

The integration of geographically referenced information into the conceptual frameworks and applied uses of the social sciences and humanities has been an ongoing process over the past few centuries. It has gained momentum in recent decades with advances in technologies for computation and visualization and with the arrival of new data sources. This article begins with an overview of this trans...