Spatial literacy and spatial thinking are fundamental skills for understanding space, interpreting geographical phenomena, and enabling active citizenship in a society increasingly driven by geospatial information. This review examines how digital tools and geospatial technologies contribute to cultivating spatial literacy and thinking within primary geography education. Following an integrative, PRISMA-informed review methodology combining searches of Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC (n = 1373 records identified), this study draws on a corpus of 141 studies—comprising an original set of sources supplemented by newly identified, priority-ranked literature—examining digital maps, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Web GIS, StoryMaps, collaborative mapping, digital games, and augmented and virtual reality in geography teaching. This review proposes an explicit conceptual model clarifying the hierarchical and complementary relationships among spatial skills, spatial thinking, critical spatial thinking, spatial literacy, and spatial citizenship, together with a four-dimensional typology distinguishing technological platforms, representational formats, pedagogical approaches, and learning activity types; both are proposed as synthesizing heuristics for organizing the reviewed evidence and are offered as a basis for future empirical validation rather than as established models. The findings suggest that pedagogically grounded digital integration strengthens spatial skills, shifts learning toward active, participatory models, and helps cultivate spatial citizenship, though the strength of this evidence varies considerably by tool and by educational level, with primary-specific support remaining comparatively limited for higher-order outcomes such as critical spatial thinking. Crucially, the effective integration of these technologies depends on structured teacher training—addressing self-efficacy and confidence-related barriers alongside technical skills—and the adoption of innovative instructional approaches. Ultimately, digital tools provide effective means of deepening geographical learning and strengthening spatial literacy in primary schools. Realizing this potential, however, depends on matching the selection and use of each tool to the specific dimension of spatial learning it is evidenced to support.
Primary geography education is a fundamental area of knowledge, as it introduces students to the systematic understanding of space, human–environment relationships and the interconnection of local and global phenomena. Primary school is the first critical context where students develop geographical thinking and acquire foundational knowledge, skills and attitudes for understanding the world [
1]. Research supports the view that Geography should be a compulsory subject in primary education with a multi-perspective, integrated and problem-oriented approach, with three central objectives: dispositions, knowledge and responsibility [
1]. Geography, therefore, contributes substantially to the formation of responsible and critical citizens, capable of understanding complex socio-environmental issues and sustainability challenges at the local and global levels [
2].
A cornerstone of geographical learning is the cultivation of spatial skills. Research has shown that students’ spatial perception is closely associated with their performance in Geography: a study with a sample of 600 sixth-grade students in Greece showed that the vast majority of them demonstrated low spatial ability, and that students with higher performance in Geography also demonstrated better spatial perception [
3]. Similar findings emerge from other studies, which highlight the shortcomings in the teaching of spatial thinking and its importance for geographical learning. Contemporary approaches highlight spatial thinking as a critical 21st century skill for understanding complex social and environmental phenomena [
4]. Spatial skills are developed from early childhood, and remain malleable through targeted pedagogical interventions [
5]. However, despite the findings, spatial skills are not systematically utilized in school teaching. A systematic review of the literature in geoscience education indicates that students need more practice in processing and interpreting spatial information, highlighting significant gaps in the teaching of spatial thinking [
6]. Furthermore, the concept of spatial citizenship highlights the importance of spatial skills for students’ active participation in their environment and the connection of local and global perspectives [
7].
Digital technologies have become an integral part of geography teaching and learning. The ongoing digital transformation of education is creating new opportunities for geographical learning and access to geospatial data [
8], while geography is an important field for the development of students’ digital competence through the use of geoinformatics tools [
9]. Recent research indicates that technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), Web GIS, mobile applications and digital storytelling create new possibilities for active learning and the development of spatial literacy [
10]. The use of tools such as Google Earth allows for the three-dimensional visualization of geographic data and the ability to move flexibly across scales, significantly enriching the understanding of space [
11], while the use of web-based geospatial applications and digital maps allows for interaction with spatial data at multiple scales, developing students’ information literacy [
12].
The purpose of this review is to synthesize the available literature on the role of digital tools in the cultivation of spatial literacy and spatial thinking in primary geography education, with the aim of developing a conceptual framework grounded in existing research. Although contemporary literature increasingly documents the contribution of digital and geospatial technologies to education, relevant studies are often developed in parallel research fields without systematically attempting to connect the concepts of spatial literacy, spatial thinking and spatial citizenship with the pedagogical use of digital tools in primary education. This review seeks to address this gap by synthesizing key theoretical perspectives and empirical findings from the literature, proposing both an explicit conceptual model of how these constructs relate to one another (
Section 3) and a coherent, multi-dimensional typology of the digital tools and pedagogical approaches used to cultivate them (
Section 4)—addressing conceptual and classificatory ambiguities that have limited comparability across prior studies in this field.
To achieve this aim, this article is organized as follows:
Section 2 presents the methodology of the literature review, including the PRISMA-informed search and selection process;
Section 3 conceptually establishes spatial literacy and spatial thinking and proposes an explicit model of their interrelationships;
Section 4 presents a four-dimensional typology of digital tools relevant to primary geography education;
Section 5 examines pedagogical approaches that support the development of spatial skills;
Section 6 analyzes the contribution of digital tools to the individual dimensions of spatial learning;
Section 7 explores the factors that influence their integration in primary school;
Section 8 presents the synthesis and discussion of the findings, including this review’s positioning relative to recent related work; and
Section 9 formulates the conclusions, educational and policy implications, limitations of this study, and suggestions for future research.
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia6080180
