Teachers’ Conceptualisations of Spatial Ability & Implications for STEM

Spatial ability is a key component of STEM education, shaping how learners visualise, manipulate, and reason about objects and relationships. Despite its importance, little is known about how teachers conceptualise spatial ability and how these beliefs influence classroom practices. This study investigates Irish post-primary teachers’ conceptualisations of spatial competency, using online card-sorting and spatial self-efficacy tasks. In the card-sorting task, participants classified everyday activities, such as parallel parking, assembling flat-pack furniture, and taking notes, as ‘spatial’, ‘somewhat spatial’, or ‘not spatial’. The self-efficacy task assessed confidence in performing spatially demanding activities, including puzzles, map reading, and interpreting working drawings. Results indicate that disciplinary background strongly shaped conceptualisations: Engineering and Graphics teachers consistently rated multiple tasks as fully spatial, while Mathematics, Science, Technology, and Materials Technology Wood teachers applied more distributed classifications. Biology and Physical Education teachers used the full range of categories, suggesting flexible understanding. Across disciplines, subtle or traditionally gendered tasks were often under-recognised as spatial, reflecting implicit norms. These findings highlight that teachers’ spatial epistemologies are influenced by disciplinary culture and task experience, potentially affecting which skills are emphasised and how students develop spatially. The study underscores the need to broaden teachers’ conceptualisations of spatial ability and integrate its development intentionally across STEM curricula.