Geographic Skills Research Articles

PEDAGOGICAL INTERVENTIONS FOR DEVELOPING SKILLS IN GEOGRAPHY AT THE SCHOOL STAGE

Geography as a subject occupies the prominent place at the school stage. Geography learning varies across the school stages and school boards of India. Geography learning provides knowledge about the description, distribution, and interaction of the diverse physical, cultural, political, and economical features of the Earth’s surface. Geography learning at the school stage not only provides the opportunity to comprehend theoretical topics but also provides scope to develop skills among the learners. Practical-based contents provide numerous opportunities to strengthen skills in geography. Skills in geography help learners think critically and creatively, solve problems in the community, and become rational and responsible citizens to cope with the era of globalization. Learners can acquire various skills through geography learning, such as map skill, geographic inquiry, spatial thinking skill, change and continuity perception skill, time perception skill, and so on. Therefore skill development in geography through the teaching-learning process of geography is highly realized. Due to many reasons, skill development in geography is marginalized across the school stages and across the school boards. The traditional/teacher-centered teaching method is one of the most significant obstacles to develop skills in geography. Activity-based/learner-centered pedagogy can accelerate the skills development in geography. In this context, the present paper made an attempt to identify pedagogical interventions for developing skills in geography at school stage. Specifically, this paper elaborates on the focus of geography teaching learning at the school stage, basic skills in geography that to be developed at the school stage, status of skill development in geography at the school stage and described the present status of pedagogical uses of teaching geography at the school stage. This paper has provided the role of teachers in pedagogical interventions for developing skills in geography at the school stage.

An Empirical Study of Situational Teaching: Agricultural Location in High School Geography

In China’s most recent round of curriculum reform, the “one situation to the end” (OSTE) situational teaching method has been successfully introduced in geography classes to improve students’ ability to solve problems in real-life situations. Taking an agricultural location course as an example, this study analyzes the implementation of situational teaching and discusses the effect of the OSTE method on the topic of sustainable development in the teaching of geography. Using a quasi-experimental design and by distributing a questionnaire to teachers in a Chinese high school, the following findings were obtained: (1) almost all teachers use some form of situational teaching, and the OSTE method has been widely used; (2) OSTE contributes to students’ awareness of sustainable and circular development, but it is not associated with an improvement in geographical skills; and (3) students are mostly interested in the promotion of higher-order thinking, a positive emotional experience, active learning, and the acquisition of systematic knowledge instead of fragmented knowledge. In short, OSTE is an efficient teaching method for geography classes, especially given how it fosters students’ sustainable development ideas. We suggest enriching the understanding of OSTE through teaching-training, jointly developed situations using students’ existing experiences, and well-designed question chains with more opportunities for interaction.

Paradox of poverty in the pursuit of a really useful Scottish geography

ABSTRACT This contribution to the Applied Geographies series describes how geographical skills and knowledge are being used in Scotland to support the work of those tackling poverty in central government, local government, the Third Sector, and community groups. Opportunity is abundant for geography to contribute to the ambitious goal of eradicating child poverty in Scotland by 2030, recently described as a ‘national mission’ by the First Minister. Geography should not be amoral: as there is a necessity for geographical analysis to inform anti-poverty activity, it is incumbent upon geographers with an interest in poverty and related issues to make impactful contributions beyond the Academy.

Navigating the National Geographic Standards in the Philippine Social Studies Curriculum

The social studies discipline as a multidisciplinary and integrative curriculum includes geographic literacy and spatial thinking as part of its academic nature in developing young learners to become informed and reasoned decision-makers in participating in a culturally diverse, democratic, and interdependent society. Geography education has an anticipated space at the heart of the social studies curriculum next to history. In a social studies classroom, geographical skills and knowledge have been used to interpret the past and analyze the future. This exploration navigated and evaluated the alignment of the social studies curriculum standards and competencies to the National Geographic Standards of the NCGE and explored the common teaching approaches in facilitating geographic education in the basic education curriculum. Using qualitative content analysis, the researchers examined the curriculum guide as the main document supplemented with the learner’s module and teacher’s guide. The findings revealed significant curriculum alignment and learner-centered teaching approaches in geography education.

Analysis of Geography Attainments in the Social Sciences Curriculum of Turkey According to the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

"The purpose of this study is to examine and compare geography attainment targets in the 6th and 7th grade Social Studies Curriculum according to the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. Document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The 6th and 7th grade geography attainment targets of the 2018 Social Studies Curriculum were analysed using a descriptive analysis technique. Twenty-two attainment targets for geography in the Social Studies Curriculum were examined using the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. It has been concluded that geography attainment targets in the Social Studies Curriculum of Turkey are generally at the lower level of thinking or cognition. This study reveals that metacognitive levels are not reflected for geography in the Turkish Social Sciences curriculum. Paying attention to these metacognitive criteria during curriculum updates may contribute to the development of high-level cognitive skills for students. In this way, teachers can focus on higher-level critical thinking skills in geography in secondary schools."

Spatial inequality of job accessibility in Shanghai: A geographical skills mismatch perspective

This study explores the spatial inequality of job accessibility in urban China, focusing on geographical skills mismatch in Shanghai. Our results suggest that geographical skills mismatch should be a critical concern in measuring job accessibility because the urban villages create residential sites for low-skill workers in central Shanghai. Based on the job accessibility index considering geographical skills mismatch, the floating population has high job accessibility in the periphery of the central urban area because there are affordable housing prices. The spatial distribution of the registered population's job accessibility still follows the core-periphery pattern. The spatial mismatch between the job centers for floating and registered populations might enlarge the segregation between them. The path analysis reveals that the housing/rent market, urban structure, and education attainment collectively shape job accessibility through residential segregation. Furthermore, path analysis manifests that high-skill people, mainly living in the central urban area, have significantly higher job accessibility. The polycentric development fails to create self-contained job centers for low-skill people. Future policies should pay attention to connecting the low-skill workers and their job markets through public rental housing or improving the public transit system.

Development Of Geobot Games in Teaching and Facilitation of Form Four Geographical Skills Topics

The suitability of Teaching and Facilitation Strategies (PDPc) will be able to create effective and fun learning for students in schools where the ability of teachers to plan and implement various PdPc strategies is able to optimize a learning session. PDPc's student -centered strategy can provide opportunities for students to submit opinions, cultivate the attitude of always seeking knowledge and learning throughout life. Student -centered learning that requires the active involvement of students in finding and investigating problems, constructing hypotheses, designing experiments, collecting data as well as drawing conclusions to solve problems can be implemented through game -based learning. While the teacher only acts as a facilitator. This study is a design and development research using the ADDIE Model. Findings show that the implementation of the ADDIE Model in the development of Geobot Game Module makes the development of modules can be carried out systematically and produce modules relevant to the Secondary School Standard Curriculum for Geography form four set by the Ministry of Education Malaysia.

ІНТЕРАКТИВНІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ ДИСТАНЦІЙНОГО НАВЧАННЯ НА УРОКАХ ГЕОГРАФІЇ

The formation of students’ geographical competence against the background of clarification and deepening of general geographical knowledge, skills and abilities, the formation of their own system of scientific judgments and values occurs during the study of geography. Students study a variety of geographical phenomena, processes, and patterns allowing understanding their dynamics and creating conditions for critical and sound analysis and comparison. Distance learning technologies include an individualized process of transfer and acquisition of knowledge, skills, abilities and methods for cognitive activity of students. Such techniques can be seen as a natural stage in the evolution of the traditional education system from chalk board to electronic board and computer technology. They provide the opportunity to conduct distance learning via the Internet; diversify the means of communication between student and teacher (e-mail, chat, forum, file sharing, etc.); activate the role of the teacher and exercise full control over the learning process; apply a multilevel testing system; Distance learning opens access to better; higher quality education for all participants in the learning process, but learning with the help of the Internet technologies is not sufficiently researched. This especially applies to the methodological development of educational support for e-learning courses, the operation of platforms for distance learning, the availability of professional staff, command of information technology for all participants in the educational process and more. The study compares the results of the formation of geographical knowledge in students in the control and experimental groups. The pedagogical conditions are substantiated and the main structural components of the organization of the process of formation of geographical knowledge in the institution of general secondary education are determined. Criteria and levels of formation of geographical knowledge of students in the learning process are determined. The effectiveness of the proposed teaching method in the implementation of distance education technologies using modern interactive platforms has been experimentally tested. The level of formation of cognitive interest of students in the process of studying the school course of geography in the 10th grade is determined. The analysis of results of control testing of pupils is made

Development Model for Environment-Based Learning to Improve Junior High School Students’ Geographical Skills

In this study, an obstacle unlikely faced by teacher is the lack of innovation in the learning model employed. The teachers are still being the center of learning resources so that they are made to correct the perception by creating a learning model that students prefer. This study aims to provide a new design in environment-based-learning (EBL) to improve geographical skills and to encourage students to think critically, innovatively and to come up with solutions. This research was development study of environment-based-learning in geography teaching. Learning media used covered syllabus, lesson plans, student modules and EBL teaching materials. Samples consisted of 32 students aged 13-14 years who were purposively selected. Data collection techniques were a compilation of observation, interviews, questionnaires documentation, and test. Data were analyzed from the syllabus, study plan, and student module validation along with instructional media, teacher and student response questionnaire, teacher and student interviews, student observation sheets, and students’ learning outcomes. EBL model design consisted of 5 steps, encountering the problem, problem analysis, discovery and reporting, presentation, and review and evaluation. The students’ learning outcome that asses by a test base on geographical skill indicator revealed that students’ geographical skills increase. The indication are the students able on thinking critically about changes taken place in their environment, so they could present environmentally friendly measures. Besides, students preferred the new design of EBL as they were welcomed to think in a critical, innovative, and solvable way of solving problems in their environment to improve their. Those provided students a belief in loving geography education from an early age.

Developing Geographic Skills through Experiments: Implementing Experiments in Geography Classroom through GeoBoxes

Experiments are an important way of working in the geography classroom. They promote and require numerous geographic skills. At the same time, experiments are only used comparatively rarely in geography lessons in Germany. In order to increase the frequency of experiments in the classroom and to better exploit their potential, GeoBoxes have been developed. These can be borrowed by teachers and contain all materials and worksheets. In the article the steps of the development of the GeoBox are presented. In addition, the concept, which aims in particular at a cognitive activation of the students during experimentation, is presented. Accompanying research provides first indications that the GeoBox seems to be suitable to arouse especially the situational interest of the students..

Skills in Geography and Economics Reflected in Austria’s Newly Developed Key Concepts and Competencies for the 2023/24 Curriculum

The Austrian school subject Geography and Economics is taught throughout lower secondary level (grades 5 to 8). Following three subject-related didactic paradigm shifts since 1962, it has developed into an integrated, socially-oriented subject in the social sciences tradition, and focuses on the person acting spatially and economically in social contexts. The central research question is: How can the goal of the subject of Geography and Economics, which is to enable young people to act in the "society-economy-politics-environment" framework, be pursued and supported at curricular level? In a Vienna-wide study (n = 527), assessments made of Geography and Economics teachers in respect of their teaching of the subject were collected in a triangulation design, using a questionnaire with open and closed questions. The evaluation of their responses used a mixed methodology of inductive category formation within the framework of qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2000), as well as variance analyses and significance tests. At the centre of their teaching, teachers place the acquisition of knowledge, the human being acting in spatial, societal and economic contexts and man–environment systems, or precisely described skills; statistical correlations between teachers’ years of service and level of education become apparent. The perception of the degree of integration of the two areas of Geography and Economics depends, among other things, on the teachers’ attitude towards the economy. While the teachers’ assessment of Geography and Economics as an integrated or combined subject is appropriate, the integration in the classroom could be further developed. For the new 2023/24 curriculum, integrated competence-oriented learning objectives and integrated key concepts were generated on the empirical basis of our results, and on the basis of subject-related didactic considerations and principles. This should further deepen the integration of geography and economics perspectives and how their integration is achieved in the classroom.

Integrating Geography Skills in the Middle Grades: Instructional Change in South Carolina, USA

In 2019, the State of South Carolina (USA) adopted new social studies standards with an emphasis on disciplinary skills in addition to content throughout the social studies areas of history, geography, civics, and economics. These skills were introduced for all grades, kindergarten through grade 12. Geography courses were added in grades 3 and 7. The standards specify and deconstruct six geography skills to be taught in these classrooms. These skills include Mapping; Models and Representations; Gather Evidence and Communicate Findings; Conditions, Connections, and Regions; Scale; and Distribution and Pattern. Social studies coordinators at the school district level were interviewed on the successes and obstacles teachers are experiencing, and on what future actions were being considered to address these skills in teaching

How Geogames Can Support Geographical Education?

Knowledge of geography is one of the main elements in solving problems such as urbanization, socio-economic inequalities, disease, migration, natural disasters. It is also seen that importance is given to the acquisition of geographical skills in educational programs. The spatial thinking skill that provides geospatial information is a geographic skill needed in the analysis and interpretation of place. Geographical inquiry skill focuses on solving a problem in line with certain research processes. Geographic information systems are the basic spatial technology used in the development of spatial thinking and geographic inquiry skills. These three elements are effective tools for solving real-life problems and have become even more important today with the development of location-based mobile applications. It is believed that Geogames from digital games can be an effective new teaching technology in learning these elements within the framework of motivational sources and learning needs in the learning environments of generation Z, which was born into digital technology. Geogames are mobile, location-based, and location- aware games for devices such as smartphones and tablets. In the literature, some types of geogame can also be classified as serious game or pervasive game. Geogame is separated from these games by its focus on solving a spatial problem with its stakeholders, mainly using GIS technology, and is closely related to the science of geography. This review is intended to question how Geogames can support geographical education. For this purpose, Youplaceit! Geocaching on the Moon, Neocartographer, Ingress, OriGami, SimCity, Project Lily Pad, Minecraft-Urban Planning, and FindeVielfalt Simulation geogame applications have been studied in terms of current learning outcomes and features. According to the results, these games can be used in the teaching of physical and human geography topics such as environmental education, urban planning, space geography, tourism geography; can be effective in teaching map skills, spatial thinking, and geographic inquiry skills; can increase collaborative work and motivation. It has been determined that there is a need for research that will provide concrete data in this new academic discipline, and some research questions have been put forward for geography educators and researchers.

Using Public, On-Campus Art in Teaching and Creating Community in Introductory Geography Courses

Public art installations are part of university campuses across the United States, and these installations can be useful in teaching important geographic concepts, skills, and geovisualization tech...

Geographical inquiry skills on implementation of participants at geography in high school at bandung city

Geography learning aims at interacting, interpreting and analyzing spatial and environmental patterns carried out by various learning models and methods, this is also inseparable from a geography teacher who acts as a facilitator in the classroom. While geography learning is not just allowing children to search for themselves material knowledge of geography, but each student must able to collaborating learning both individually and in groups. This study uses descriptive quantitative survey methods. The samples in this study were geography teachers in public high schools in Bandung, totaling 21 schools and 35 teachers. The implementation of the geographical inquiry conducted by 35 teachers is 76.57%, the which means that in phases and systematically the teacher has Carried out the steps listed in the geographical inquiry indicator. A geographical inquiry has an influence on geography skills in educators, especially high school students. The influence can be in the form of implementation by the teacher so that students have the skills to make-geographic questions, think critically and realistically, and manage geographic information.

Develop Critical Spatial Thinking by Utilizing Local Landscapes: Geography Field Laboratory Studies

Geographical skills that need to be shared by each geographic are three categories, including map skills, field skills, and satellite image interpretation skills. To achieve field skills competency, a location is needed to be used as material for practicum studies for each subject. The Geography Education Field Laboratory can be studied in depth based on an analysis of the level of learning needs. The basis of the lab location requirements as a laboratory is seen from the laboratory function as an area to carry out careful and accurate testing and measurement of the phenomenon under study. Local landscape can be used as a field laboratory to improve critical spatial thinking skills. The study was carried out through the identification of local landscapes by delineating the area through the utilization of satellite imagery and identifying potential from each area that was chosen descriptively. Location characteristics to be used as locations for geography learning resources can describe geographical concepts, local landscapes, and regional phenomena.

Gender perspective: the spatial thinking of secondary education students

Spatial thinking is defined as an inseparable aspect of geographical skills, the ability to make decisions from a set of choices of environmental conditions related to the needs of life. It is assumed that gender has a relationship with the geographical way of thinking of a person. Male and female have different perspectives on each decision making to assess and choose space both on the scale of rooms and on the surface of the earth. This study aims to determine the differences in spatial thinking based on gender in junior high school and senior high school students. The method used is descriptive. The data were collected through testing technique. The result shows that the correlation coefficient between gender and spatial thinking is not significant, but in some or certain cases there seems to be a slight difference. Men are more likely to think pragmatically about various situations that will occur in a narrow space and time, while women are more anticipatory in broader dimensions of time and space, such as time differences in various cities, season changes, and predictions of space threatened by natural disasters.

Geography textbook tasks fostering thinking skills for the acquisition of powerful knowledge

Tasks are essential in fostering students’ learning processes, and thinking skills are considered to be of central importance to learning. In order to analyse how tasks promote the development of thinking skills in school geography, we need an instrument that looks beyond a simple distinction between lower and higher order thinking. It should be able to identify types of tasks based on distinctive elements on the way to acquiring powerful knowledge or knowledge of high epistemic quality. In this paper, we describe the development of an instrument based on the adaptation of existing categorisations and the use of Bernstein’s recognition and realisation rules. The instrument distinguishes five levels of thinking: lower order thinking, use of thinking strategies, parts of higher order thinking, higher order thinking, and reflection. The instrument was employed to analyse tasks in geography textbooks used in the Netherlands and the German State North Rhine-Westphalia, with researchers and teacher educators in both states considering its efficacy both plausible and practicable. The results show that the instrument is sufficiently sensitive to identify differences in types of tasks and the extent to which access to powerful knowledge is fostered.

Developing Geographical Narratives: Pupils Create Digital Text Adventures with Twine.

Applying geographical knowledge in new contexts is a creative and difficult task for school pupils. However, creating text adventures with the open-source tool Twine may be one way to apply geographic knowledge, but there is currently no research that confirms this. We attempted to determine how pupils in small groups constructed text adventures in geography lessons, focused on the topic “Tourism in Myanmar: threat or opportunity”. We recorded the construction processes of 14 pupils audibly, organized into six teams, and analyzed their games. We found that the different text adventure construction activities between the groups had minimal differences. The groups predominantly asked questions and expressed ideas that used meta-conversation for organization and used agreements. These and other text adventure construction activities can help to specify a model of collaborative creativity. In addition, successful groups wrote geographical narratives with adverbs to emphasize the psychological proximity, rhetorical questions and feelings in their stories, and used more words than the others. The results suggest a focus of future research should be on developing a model for integrating geographical narrative skills into geography lessons and intensifying research about collaborative creativity.

How Do Geography Textbooks Deal with Map Skills? A Comparison of Turkey and England.

The skills used in all areas and stages of education are important also in geographical education. The concept of skill is important for the individual’s life at all stages of Education. Geographical skills contribute to the abilit y of individuals to think critically and solve problems. They also enable the individual to think at a metacognitive level. In this study, it was aimed to show the degree to which secondary geography textbooks gain the level of use of map skills. Maps are communication tools that show where and how positional information is found. One of the most important materials to be used in geographical education are Maps. The map, which will appeal to the studen t, should benefit the individuals in their daily life by an inductive method. Individuals with map skills can transfer this directly into their lives. They can both read the immediate environment in which they live and have global mapping skills and positio n analysis skills. In this study, skills, geographical skills, geography textbooks were analysed to determine their conceptual framework by focusing on map usage skills. This research is a qualitative one , with research data of 9, 10, 11 and 12 grade textbooks printed forthe 2017-2018 to 2019-2020 academic ye ar s. The process of collecting and analyzing geography textbooks used the document review technique.