Designing and Validating the Model of Visual-Spatial Competencies of Elementary School Students in Lessons Specific for Virtual Education

The aim of the present study was to design and validate the model of visual-spatial competencies of students in mathematics lessons for virtual education. This research was one of the mixed method researches of consecutive exploratory type and classification model which was performed in two qualitative and quantitative stages. The qualitative part was transformed using the Meta Synthesis method and performed in six stages of Sandloski and Barroso (2007). The students' visual-spatial competence model in mathematics was designed in the form of two competencies related to students and teachers. Afterward the quantitative section was defined to validate the model. The quantitative part was performed using the descriptive survey method and the researcher-made scale. The statistical population of this section was primary school teachers, and the relevant tools were distributed among 65 primary school teachers in Shiraz. In order to determine the validity of the scale, the content validity method and the calculation of the content validity and content validity ratios were used. The reliability of the instrument was also calculated by the internal consistency method. Quantitative data were analyzed using the confirmatory factor analysis method. Based on findings, the visual-spatial competencies of elementary school students were classified in two main themes of "Student-related competencies" include seven sub-themes: "Cognitive skills", "Mental function", "Learning power", "Making space of mind", "Perception" "Template", "Visual memory", "Simulation" and "Teacher-related competencies" include three sub-themes: "Appropriate content", "Teaching skills" and "Educational design", which are valid.