Abstract
Interdisciplinary research with geographic information systems (GIS) can be rewarding as researchers from different disciplines have the opportunity to create something novel. GIS, though, is known to be difficult to use and learn. It is imperative for its successful use in projects that those who need to use GIS are able to learn it quickly and easily. To better support interdisciplinary research with GIS, it is necessary to understand what researchers with interdisciplinary experience wanted to use it for and how they learned it. The aim would be to advise geography educators on creating learning resources that could compliment or supplement existing learning approaches used by interdisciplinary researchers to improve the learning experience and uptake of GIS. This article explores the results from an online survey and interviews conducted between July 2014 and August 2015 with participants from the UK, the US and Europe on how interdisciplinary researchers learned GIS and which resources and platforms were utilised. Guidelines and a framework are presented, modifying the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework, incorporating informal and context‐based learning and GIS concepts from the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge. Findings show that interdisciplinary researchers want to use GIS to capture, analyse and visualise information; they largely use informal learning approaches (e.g. internet searches, watching a video, ask a more experienced person); and they predominantly use ArcGIS, QGIS and web GIS platforms. Future work suggests resources use contextually relevant learning activities and bear in mind nuances of disciplinary language.
Highlights
Disciplinary ways of thinking are instilled in students by faculty as part of formal education (Chick et al 2009), so different disciplines approach problems in different ways
Given that we are interested in how the interdisciplinary researcher creates knowledge, our research is set within constructivism and will explore possible constructivist learning theories to use as a foundation for materials and activities, as well as to evaluate results and frame discussion. Another aim of our research is to propose and modify, if necessary, an education-based framework to act as the structure for which Geographic information systems (GIS) concepts can focus on and how to convey the information to interdisciplinary researchers, using relevant mediums and GIS platforms
Though informal learning approaches were commonly utilised, materials using a constructivist approach, such as contextbased learning (CBL), may better support the learner by providing them with information on relevant GIS concepts and act as a foundation for educators developing the materials. This will allow them to be created in advance, perhaps alleviating time pressures on geography educators, providing a flexible activity structure to act as a guide for topic exploration
Summary
Disciplinary ways of thinking are instilled in students by faculty as part of formal education (Chick et al 2009), so different disciplines approach problems in different ways. It is even possible to discern differences in how arguments are generated, developed, expressed, and reported in different disciplines (Becher and Trowler 2001). This highlights how language and literature play a key role in establishing a discipline’s identity, excluding those who have not been ‘initiated’ into it (Becher and Trowler 2001). Becher and Trowler (2001) have identified disciplines as being convergent and divergent; the former are representative of disciplines that will defend their established norms and resist or reject those who attempt to question them, and the latter of disciplines that lack a clear sense of mutual cohesion and identity. Geographic information systems (GIS), one of geography’s tools for
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