Bibliometric Analysis of Studies On Spatial Thinking

Authors : Özlem Elvan, Kadir Karatekin, Turan Yiğit

Pages : 94-115

View : 66 | Download : 131

Publication Date : 2026-01-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The central role of spatial thinking in underpinning scientific discovery, supporting the modern workforce, and addressing everyday problem-solving has led to increased scholarly interest in this domain. Especially after educators realised the important role of spatial thinking in their own disciplines, they started to look for educational interventions that could improve students\\\' spatial thinking. In this regard, spatial thinking has been the subject of many scientific studies. In this study, it is aimed to map the studies on spatial thinking based on bibliometric data. In addition, the study aims to present a systematic summary of the studies on spatial thinking to researchers using bibliometric analysis and to reveal the trends and gaps related to the concept. As the unit of analysis, the bibliometric data of published articles scanned in the Web of Science (WoS) database were taken into consideration. The data was collected on May 5, 2025. During the study process, WoS databases were searched for research themes using the keywords “critical spatial thinking”, “spatial thinking”, “spatial thinking ability”, “spatial thinking skills” and “visual-spatial thinking”. As search criteria, ‘document title, key, abstract’ was selected. As a result of the analysis made with the determined criteria and keywords, 980 studies were reached. Bibliometric data obtained from academic studies constitute the data set of the study. As a result of the research, it was seen that studies on spatial thinking skills have increased significantly since 2011. Most studies were conducted in the fields of education and geography. It was observed that the USA led the studies on spatial thinking, followed by China, England, Germany, Canada and Turkey. It was seen that the studies were mostly published in journals indexed in Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) followed by Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). Studies on spatial thinking have been conducted across diverse fields such as education, geography, psychology, computer science and environmental sciences. Therefore, it is recommended that researchers develop interdisciplinary collaborative projects and jointly shape the theoretical framework.
Keywords : Mekânsal düşünme, mekânsal düşünme becerisi, bibliyometrik analiz

ORIGINAL ARTICLE URL