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Understanding gaps in research networks: using “spatial reasoning” as a window into the importance of networked educational research

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Abstract

This paper finds its origins in a multidisciplinary research group’s efforts to assemble a review of research in order to better appreciate how “spatial reasoning” is understood and investigated across academic disciplines. We first collaborated to create a historical map of the development of spatial reasoning across key disciplines over the last century. The map informed the structure of our citation search and oriented an examination of connection across disciplines. Next, we undertook a network analysis that was based on highly cited articles in a broad range of domains. Several connection gaps—that is, apparent blockages, one-way flows, and other limitations on communications among disciplines—were identified in our network analysis, and it was apparent that these connection gaps may be frustrating efforts to understand the conceptual complexity and the educational significance of spatial reasoning. While these gaps occur between the academic disciplines that we evaluated, we selected a few examples for closer analysis. To illustrate how this lack of flow can limit development of the field of mathematics education, we selected cases where it is evident that researchers in mathematics education are not incorporating the important work of mathematicians, psychologists, and neuroscientists—and vice versa. Ultimately, we argue, a more pronounced emphasis on transdisciplinary (versus multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary) research might be timely, and perhaps even necessary, in the evolution of educational research.

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Notes

  1. Because this writing is concerned with research within and communications among a number of disciplines, we have adopted the convention of capitalizing the names of those disciplines whenever we refer to recognized domains of inquiry. This convention is useful to distinguish between, for example, the field of Mathematics and the activity of learning mathematics.

  2. As the focus of this article is transdisciplinarity, illustrated through the instance of spatial reasoning, it is beyond our current purposes to critique or elaborate this preliminary definition. However, we have done so elsewhere. See, in particular, the closing chapter of Davis, Francis, and Drefs (2015).

  3. All journals within the Scopus database are classified in one or more major and minor subject areas. Neuroscience, Mathematics, and Psychology are each considered major subject areas. Education is a minor subject area within Social Sciences. Mathematics Education journals are typically classified under the major subjects of Mathematics and Social Sciences and under the minor subjects of Education and Applied Mathematics, respectively.

  4. Available through: http://www.wncp.ca/.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by federal funding through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Bruce, Davis, & Sinclair).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada

    Catherine D. Bruce

  2. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Brent Davis, Michelle Drefs & Krista Francis

  3. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Nathalie Sinclair

  4. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Lynn McGarvey

  5. University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    David Hallowell & Yukari Okamoto

  6. University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Zachary Hawes

  7. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Joan Moss

  8. Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

    Joanne Mulligan

  9. York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Walter Whiteley

  10. Southern Cross University, East Lismore, Australia

    Geoff Woolcott

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  1. Catherine D. Bruce
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  2. Brent Davis
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Correspondence to Catherine D. Bruce.

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Bruce, C.D., Davis, B., Sinclair, N. et al. Understanding gaps in research networks: using “spatial reasoning” as a window into the importance of networked educational research. Educ Stud Math 95, 143–161 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-016-9743-2

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