RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PRESERVICE PRIMARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ GENDER, ACADEMIC SUCCESS AND SPATIAL ABILITY

The aim of this work is to investigate relationships among pre-service primary mathematics teachers’ gender, academic success and spatial ability. The study was conducted in Izmir with 193 pre-service primary mathematics teachers of Dokuz Eylül University. In the work, spatial ability test, which consists of two main sub-tests measuring spatial orientation and spatial visualization abilities, is used. In order to analyze the obtained data, descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and Mann-Whitney U test are used. The results indicated that pre-service primary mathematics teachers’ spatial ability level is low; there is a positive relationship between spatial ability and academic success; there is no significant difference between spatial ability and gender and the abilities of spatial orientation and spatial visualization are positively correlated. Some important research questions are also proposed.