GeoGebra as a spatial skills training tool among science, technology engineering and mathematics students

Spatial abilities, which are described by Linn and Petersen as “skills in representing, transforming, generating, and recalling symbolic, nonlinguistic information” are, as such, not trained or taught in schools. Nevertheless, the importance of highly developed abilities for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students has been scientifically proven, which implies that spatial abilities can have a significant impact on success in studying STEM subjects and, later, STEM careers. The developed experimental program employing GeoGebra 5 ran for 4 weeks and was conducted at the Faculty of Science and Education in Mostar. The sample consisted of first‐year students, aged 18 to 20, with 35 male and 17 female students in the experimental and 33 male and 19 female students in the control group (CG). A spatial test was administered before the program and once again at the end, along with one more spatial test and a questionnaire, which consisted of possible highly developed spatial abilities predictors. The differences between the control and the experimental group (EG) at initial testing of spatial abilities were not statistically significant regarding any subsample. No significant correlations between the questionnaire and the initial spatial test were found. The correlation between average grade in mathematics in high school and the scores on the initial spatial test was not significant. Results showed that a statistically significant jump in performance on the posttest regarding the EG has occurred, whereas no statistically significant changes in performance have been noted regarding the CG.