Abstract
This study was undertaken to examine students' perceived ability to learn basic engineering drawing, differential impacts of spatial training and training transfers. The research method used was based on the Triangulation Software Development Method, which was carried out in two parts: a Survey Research, and an Experimental Research. The survey research examined students' perceived ability in learning engineering drawing involving 355 secondary school pupils, with a mean age of 15.5 years, which was conducted through a survey. The independent variables of the survey research were spatial experience, gender and mathematical ability; the dependent variable was the perceived ability. Instruments used were Students Perception Questionnaire (SPQ) and Spatial Experience Questionnaire (SEQ). The experimental research was based on pretest-posttest design, which was carried out to examine the extent of Spatial Visualization (SV) and Mental Rotation (MR) training improvement, differential impacts attributed to gender and training method, and training transfer to engineering drawing task. Ninety-eight secondary school pupils (36 girls, 62 boys), with a mean age 15.5 years, were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group employed interaction-based training in a desktop virtual environment trainer, the second group used animation-based training, and the control group trained using printed materials and all groups trained for 6 weeks. Instruments used were computerized version of the Spatial Visualization (SV) and Mental Rotation (MR) tests. All data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 18. For the survey research, correlations among spatial experience, gender, and mathematics achievement with students' perceived ability to learn were significant. In general, high spatial experience respondents, boys, and high mathematics achievers tended to view the learning favorably. Several topics of engineering drawing were found to be particularly difficult namely orthographic drawing and isometric drawing. For the experimental research, analysis of the data revealed that there were substantial performance gains in SV and MR accuracy, but not in MR speed. Main effects of training in SV and MR accuracy were found; those trained using novel methods, especially in the interaction-enabled method, outperformed those trained in the conventional method. Interaction effects were observed where differential improvement gains in SV and MR accuracy only involved boys but not girls. Transfer of training to performance in solving engineering drawing task was observed through differential performances of groups where those with higher spatial ability solved the task much better than those with lower spatial ability after spatial training. This transfer was qualified by the multiple linear regression procedure revealing that spatial visualization was found to be significant in predicting the performance of the basic engineering drawing task. Implications of the lessons learned and recommendations for future study are also discussed.