Visuospatial Reasoning

This book develops the theoretical perspective on visuospatial reasoning in ecocultural contexts by recognizing that the ecology of place is socially and culturally understood in terms of visuospatial reasoning. In other words, language, gestures, and representations reflect visuospatial reasoning in context. With a renewed interest in visuospatial reasoning in the Mathematics Education community, this volume is extremely timely and adds significantly to current literature on the topic. For a number of years, two themes in Mathematics Education have run parallel with each other with only a passing acquaintance. These two areas are the psychological perspective on visuospatial reasoning and ecocultural perspectives on mathematics education. This volume examines both areas of research and then explores the intersection of these powerful ideas. In addition, there has been a growing interest in sociocultural aspects of education and in particular that of Indigenous education in the field of mathematics education. However, there has not been a sound analysis of how environmental and cultural contexts impact on visuospatial reasoning although it was noted as far back as the 1980s when Bishop developed his duality of visual processing and interpreting visual information. This book provides the analysis and in so doing not only articulates new and worthwhile lines of research, but also uncovers and makes real a variety of useful professional approaches in teaching school mathematics.