Pre‐Service Teachers' Views about Spatial Skills and Associations with their Own Spatial Skills, Emotions, and Confidence

In the present study, we explored whether future teachers considered spatial skills to be built up slowly and incrementally (incremental view) or considered spatial skills to be an innate, static aptitude (entity view). We also examined whether these views were associated with personal spatial skills, confidence in spatial problem‐solving, or emotions. Participants ( N = 156) solved spatial problems, rated their confidence and emotions (anxiety, enjoyment), and indicated their views about spatial skills. Results showed that, on average, future teachers favored an incremental view. At the same time, views varied considerably, and some pre‐service teachers considered spatial skills to be innate and unmodifiable. Incremental spatial views were positively related to personal spatial skills, confidence in spatial problem‐solving, and teaching enjoyment in math, but not to anxiety. Our results highlight a need to explicitly foster incremental views in pre‐service teachers.