A Possible Method for Developing Spatial Awareness in Teaching Technical Drawing

Kovács Gáborné senior lecturer
Széchenyi István University, Győr, Hungary
kgaborne@sze.hu

To express our visual thoughts we use drawings and the action itself is sketching, figuration or depiction.
In a general sense drawing means a sensitive representation of real forms and figures; true to nature or abstract, symbolic recording of the objects and phenomena of reality using visual aids. It is also a cognitive and means of expression. In a narrower sense, focusing on technical fields of life, drawing as an information carrier is the most essential means of communication between different work phases.
For reading a drawing is not else but the reproduction of a productive activity with the primary aim of visualising a technical object or means, being able to draw requires not just having a thorough knowledge of rules, but high level of visual skills on both the constructor’s and the reader’s part.
In Hungary the possible ways of representing an object and technical standards are taught in course of a subject called Technical Drawing. Technical drawing is part of vocational grounding, and as such, its task is to make good basis for teaching more advanced technical subjects in the future, therefore, it develops skills and abilities indispensable for being able to do quality work.
Nowadays students choosing a carrier do not have enough knowledge about either their own visual abilities or the technical requirements of their chosen profession. That is a reason why so many students starts technical studies with an average or poor level of visual skills. Under these conditions it is very demanding to meet the Trade’s requirements that by the end of their preliminary training every student has to be skilled enough to be able to represent their visual thoughts.
In my country a monumental research has been carried out on defining the elements of spatial awareness and making this skill measurable. Using the results of the research led by Andrea Kárpáti a totally new kind of measurement device was invented which is suitable for orienting pedagogical activity in developing spatial awareness. Certain items, which can be put into the two well separable categories of perception and manipulation, contain exercises with well-known pedagocical topics in technical drawing.
Spatial perception as the general skill of processing spatial information can be defined as the perception of two- and three-dimensional figures and the skill used for understanding of the perceived information, objects or relationships, and problem-solving as well. Using this definition as a starting point we developed an easily applicable method which draws the attention to the whole material and does not presume any preliminary-training.
Despite the fact that students learn in groups, the pace of reaching the level of spatial awareness they themselves are able to make projections, representations of an object or to read a drawing at depends on the individuals’ intellingence. The method we suggest being used for developing spatial skills teaches how to think in projections, the interconnections among projections and how to make elevation drawings of three-dimensional objects with the means of technology.

In previous researches the age of 14-16 has already been  proved to be the period when  spatial awareness can be developed the most effectively. In the first place, our method aims at this age group, but we truly believe that good results can be attained in tertiary education as well, moreover, studying the material is definitely fruitful for those laymen who ”just” want to polish their technical skills.

Bibliography:

Kárpáti Andrea (2005): A kamaszok vizuális nyelve. Akadémiai Kiadó, Bp.
Lohman, D. F. (1988): Spatial abilites as traits, processes and knowledge. In: Sternberg, R. J. (ed.): Advances in the psychology of human intelligence. Hillsdale, NJ., Erlbaum, vol Iv, 181-248.