Influence of Pre‐Service Teachers' Spatial Activity Interests Shape Spatial Anxiety, Perspective Taking, and Mistakes

ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the pre‐service teachers' interest in spatial activities and whether their spatial anxieties were related to their spatial perspective‐taking abilities. Additionally, the study aimed to describe pre‐service teachers' mistakes in spatial perspective‐taking and the types of activities they were most interested in. A total of 45 pre‐service elementary school teachers participated in the study, with data collected using the spatial perspective‐taking test, spatial activity questionnaire, and Spatial Anxiety Scale. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were employed to analyse the collected data. The study results indicated no predictive correlation between spatial activities, spatial anxiety, and spatial perspective‐taking variables. The most common mistakes made by pre‐service teachers involved right–left direction signs and incorrect orientations between 0°–90° and 270°–360°. Interestingly, the findings also revealed that pre‐service teachers preferred individual and feminine activities more than spatial activities.