English abstract
This study aims to determine the relationship of spatial thinking and the ability of students to solve physics problems at the Air Force Technical College in Sultanate of Oman. All the students (178) in the academic phases (basic, intermediate and advance) ,(who are registered in the second academic semester April- August 2008), are involved in this study. Translated spatial thinking test, (Spatial Orientation: Card Rotation Test by Educational Testing Service-ETS), is used in this study with a reliability coefficient of (0.92). A physics test in kinematics is applied on the advanced academic students, after it was judged and its reliability coefficient was found to be (0.92). The researcher used the average, slandered deviation and one way ANOVA to analysis the data collected, which led to the following results:
There were no statistically significant differences between the students in the three academic phases (basic, intermediate and advance) in spatial thinking test due to academic phase. There were statistically significant differences between high spatial students and low spatial students in extrapolation problems and speed comparison problems in favor of the high spatial students. There were statistically significant differences between high spatial students and mediate spatial students in speed problems and graph problems in favor of the high spatial students. Also the result showed statistically significant differences between high spatial students and low spatial students in speed problems and graph problems in favor of the high spatial students. According to these results, it is recommended to include spatial thinking test in the admission tests. It is also recommended to include spatial thinking tasks in physics content and physics exams. The study encourages the educational establishments to include spatial thinking in pre-serves physics teacher's programs and in-serves physics teachers training programs
