Geography Education, Spatial Thinking, and Geospatial Technologies: Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue contains six papers on the development of students’ knowledge, skills, and practice of geospatial thinking in a variety of educational contexts. Each of the papers addresses an aspect of the research gap that deserves timely attention in the field, focusing on curriculum design, pedagogical approaches, exemplary resources or tools, and strategies to move forward for the promotion of geospatial teaching and learning. We encourage continued research efforts to accumulate knowledge about curriculum, instruction, and assessment, as well as teachers’ professional development that can help students become 21st-century citizens equipped with geospatial literacy. Further research is recommended on the theories that can help explain and guide the development of students’ geospatial knowledge and skills in both formal and informal education, and effective ways to incorporate geospatial thinking into teacher preparation programs

Assessing the Impact of a Geospatial Data Collection App on Student Engagement in Environmental Education

A critical component of environmental education is to ensure student understanding and use of available technologies to better experience and analyze spatially distributed features of the environment. Combining mobile technologies with geographic information systems in field data collection may provide a unique opportunity for students to feel engaged in what they are learning and take ownership of their learning process. We customized an open access data collection application using Collector for ArcGIS and investigated its impacts on student engagement and perception of the incorporation of technology within an environmental science curriculum. Analyses of pre- and post-surveys indicate that the inclusion of geospatial technologies as a part of environmental curricula allows students to take the lead on their own research, view field data interactively as opposed to looking at a database in hindsight and analyze multiscale data as it is presented during field data collection. The findings of this study are consistent with previous studies, suggesting a strong association between the inclusion of geospatial technologies as a part of curricula and student engagement

Small-group work and relational thinking in geographical mysteries: A study in Dutch secondary education

Teaching and Teacher Learning (ICLON

A Phenomenographic Study Of Student Engagement Using Gis-Story Maps In An Eighth-Grade Social Studies Classroom

This qualitative phenomenographic study explores students\u27 engagement using gis-story maps in an eighth-grade social studies classroom from a southeastern United States’ school district. The study answered the following questions: (1) how do eighth-grade students perceive their engagement with social studies when it is taught using story maps? (2) how do eighth-grade students perceive the relationship between gis, story maps to their own life? This study investigates students\u27 engagement from the perspective of the students rather than the teacher. Qualitative data collection involved classroom observations, student-written reflections, and oral interviews of fourteen student-participants. The data analysis reveals that students perceive story maps as engaging in four qualitatively different ways: generating inquiry, visualizing information, mapping interactively, and cycling. Students see a geographic and cultural connection between story maps and their lives, and were also able to see a beyond the classroom connection. The study presents students\u27 description of themselves when they are engaged, stressing the importance of classroom learning experiences, studenting, evidencing, and fostering intrinsic motivation. The results from the study supported the notion that students want their learning in social studies to include variety and active learning strategies

Improving Spatial Thinking Through Experiential-Based Learning Across International Higher Education Settings

Research in geographic education has a strong focus on the improvement of spatial thinking. For Millennials, spatial thinking curriculum could benefit from the inclusion of experiential-based learning activities. However, as universities are faced with larger class sizes, new approaches need to be incorporated by the instructors to offer improved learning environments. Courses introducing basic geography skills often incorporate lessons concerned with spatial thinking and global perspectives. Thus, the instruction of geographic tools such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), longitude, latitude, and remote sensing offer prime opportunities for experiential-based learning in geographic pedagogy. This research aimed to employ a low-cost experiential-based learning method incorporating a geocaching activity to strengthen spatial thinking skills. The method was employed at universities in both the United States and Ethiopia with non-geography major students at different levels of study. The effectiveness of the method was measured utilizing the pre- and post- spatial thinking ability test (STAT). Additionally, the student’s perceptions and experience with the activity were further explored through a survey. The results suggest that the geocaching activity significantly (t(133)=-2.914, p=0.004) improved the spatial thinking of the grouping of all students. These students showed significant improvements in orientation and directional abilities (p=0.000), spatial overlay and dissolve (p=0.033), and points, networks, regions/ spatial shapes and patterns (p=0.003). Additionally, students suggested they strongly agree that they enjoyed the activity (85.83%) and that the activity stimulated their thinking more than a lecture (79.69%). The findings suggest that the incorporation of an experiential-learning activity in the undergraduate classroom may lead to improvements in student spatial thinking

Investigating the Role of Geospatial Technologies as a Supplement to Environmental Education: Development of an Environmental Data Collection Application and Its Implementation in the Classroom

Informal STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education refers to science learning that takes place in a non-traditional setting, such as a museum, a library, and outside a classroom, based on the methods different from the traditional pen-to-paper style of classroom learning. A critical component of Informal STEM education is to ensure student understanding and using available technologies to better analyze and convey scientific data, particularly for the data that are spatial in nature. Combining mobile technologies with geographic information systems (GIS) in field data collection provides unique opportunities for students to feel stimulated and engaged in what they are learning and to take ownership of their own learning process.In this thesis, I developed a publicly available and open access data collection application and investigated its impacts on students’ engagement and perception of the incorporation of technology in their learning within the environmental science curricula. The analyses of pre- and post-surveys indicate that the inclusion of geospatial technologies as a part of curricula can significantly boost students’ engagement by allowing the opportunities to 1) take the lead on their own research, 2) view field data in real-time as opposed to looking at a database in hindsight, and 3) view and analyze multiscale data as it is presented during field analysis. The findings of this study are consistent with previous studies, suggesting a strong correlation between the inclusion of geospatial technologies as a part of curricula and student engagement and performance

Evaluating behavioral intention to increase classroom Geotechnology usage following geoinquiry implementation

As educational practices include foundational and cutting-edge preparation, the value of problem-based instruction employing industry-standard technologies increases. Geospatial technologies (GST), are a group of professional technologies, including GIS (Geographic Information Systems), used by industries to make informed decisions with spatial data. This study investigated educator behavioral intention to use GIS/GST in classroom practice, and the moderating effect, if any, of the GeoInquiry, a curricular resource. The UTAUT framework was employed to evaluate and quantify the factors impacting behavioral intention (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions). These data were examined to identify moderation by GeoInquiry usage. One hundred and two surveys were completed by educators in 27 states. The survey results indicate a moderate statistically significant relationship between each of the factors and behavioral intention. An increase in any factor will increase behavioral intention. The mean response increased for the group that used GeoInquiries in classroom instruction, indicating correlation between each factor and GeoInquiry usage. Statistically significant differences related to using GeoInquiries in classroom instruction were identified for effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and behavioral intention. Similar results related to the degree of GeoInquiry usage were not found. Implications include professional development for both educators and administrators, the continued development of curricular resources, and an alignment of both professional development and curricular resources to high yield instructional strategies, standards, and student engagement. Recommendations for future research include expanding the number of survey respondents, modifying items, conducting structured interviews, social network analysis, and developing curricular resources, which could impact student learning with digital mapping technology

A study of the role of GIS in constructing relational place knowledge through school geography education

This thesis addresses a specific aspect of geography in school education, the role of geographic information systems (GIS) in supporting relational understanding of place. It does this by combining a literature-based conceptual analysis with schools-based empirical enquiry. The main research question that steers the thesis is: What role does GIS play in constructing relational knowledge about place through school geography education?\ud \ud The research offers new insights on the ways in which teachers can use GIS in geography education to construct relational knowledge about place. Following a discussion of place, relational knowledge and GIS in both academic and school geography, a methodology for the research is fully explained and justified. A qualitative enquiry approach is adopted via a multi-staged design consisting of case study and practitioner research. Analysis of interviews with teachers and pupils, lesson observations and document analyses yields ‘thick description’ of constructing place knowledge through GIS.\ud \ud A synthesis of the conceptual and empirical analyses provides the basis for a discussion of findings. Findings identify GIS as a powerful medium for relational spatial analysis in school geography but also reveal its limitations on relational constructions and interpretations of place. A model of geographical knowledge construction in GIS is presented as a device for developing teachers’ critical engagement with GIS in school geography. The thesis concludes with a critical evaluation and recommendations for future study

The Role of Geospatial Thinking and Geographic Skills in Effective Problem Solving with GIS: K-16 Education

Effective use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) is hampered by the limited geospatial reasoning abilities of students. The ability to reason with spatial relations, more specifically apply geospatial concepts, including the identification of spatial patterns and spatial associations, is important to geographic problem solving in a GIS context. This dissertation examines the broad influence of three factors on GIS problem solving: 1) affection towards computers, geography, and mathematics, 2) geospatial thinking, as well as 3) geographic skills. The research was conducted with 104 students in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Students were drawn from four educational levels: grade 9 students, 13 to 14 years of age; 1st year undergraduate university students, 3rd and 4th year undergraduate geography majors; and geography students at the graduate level ranging from 22 to 32 years of age. The level of affection is measured with modified scales borrowed from psychology. Results show that students in general exhibit positive sentiments toward computers and geography but less so towards mathematics. Spatial thinking and knowledge of geospatial concepts are measured by a 30-item scale differentiating among spatial thinkers along a novice-expert continuum. Scores on the scale showed an increase in spatial reasoning ability with age, grade, and level of education, such that grade 9 students averaged 7.5 out of 30 while the mean score of graduate students was 20.6. The final exercise assessed pertinent skills to geography namely inquiry, data collection, and analysis. In general, there was a positive correlation in the scores such that the skill proficiency increased with grade. Related analysis found three factors that affect problem-solving performance with a GIS. These include age, geographic skills (inquiry and analysis), and geospatial thinking (subscales analysis, representation, comprehension, and application). As well, the relationship(s) between performance on the geospatial scale and the observed problem-solving sequences and strategies applied on a GIS was examined. In general, students with lower scores were more apt to use basic visualization (zoom/measure tools) or buffer operations, while those with higher scores used a combination of buffers, intersection, and spatial queries. There were, however, exceptions as some advanced students used strategies that overly complicated the problem while others used visualization tools alone. The study concludes with a discussion on future research directions, followed by a series of pencil and paper games aimed to develop spatial thinking within a geographic setting