Tens of thousands of potential engineers missed due to exams’ focus on literacy

Up to 30,000 children with strong spatial reasoning skills could be missed by the education system, according to new findings
25th May 2017, 12:01am

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Tens of thousands of potential engineers missed due to exams’ focus on literacy

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Potentially gifted engineers may be overlooked at school because the exam system cannot pick up their talents, a new study claims.

People who have high spatial reasoning skills - meaning they have good visual imaginations, such as finding it easy to imagine how objects look when rotated - can excel in fields such as science and engineering.

But a study by GL Assessment, published today, estimates that there are around 30,000 children in the UK who are good at spatial reasoning also have poor verbal skills.

It adds that as the school curriculum and testing regimes are so dependent on language and literacy skills, these children’s abilities may go unrecognised.

Based on an analysis of 20,000 pupils, the assessment company found that 4 per cent of pupils who have high spatial skills had poor verbal skills.

‘Their talents often go unrecognised’

When looking at how these pupils did at GCSE, they found that 81 per cent of pupils with high spatial and verbal skills got a B grade or above in English GCSE, compared to 24 per cent of those pupils with the same spatial ability but poor verbal skills.

The gap was smaller in maths: 89 per cent of pupils who do well in both spatial and verbal skills achieved at least a B grade, compared to 52 per cent of those with high spatial skills but poor verbal skills.

“We know students with a bias towards spatial learning should do well in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the visual arts. And we also know that spatial learners tend to process information in a different way,” Sarah Haythornthwaite, director at GL Assessment, says.

“Unfortunately their talents often go unrecognised, partly because most teachers are excellent communicators and tend to have strong verbal skills, partly because spatial thinkers often don’t speak up in class and partly because so much of the curriculum and assessment regimes - particularly at primary - are predicated on verbal skills.”

The report also notes ways to spot “hidden” talent in science - such as considering ways to identify spatial learners, offering different ways to approach tasks and encouraging children to think beyond gender stereotypes.

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