This volume uniquely links educational theories and the practice of GIScience in higher education contexts to guide classroom practice, present effective practical implementations from peers, and provide resources and strategies for effective teaching methods. The book offers a comprehensive exploration of GIScience education, including current trends and future educational needs in GIScience, and will act as a resource to prepare learners for a world that demands more intensive investment in present-day education and technological literacy. Additionally, the indirect benefit of merging the fragmented literature on GIScience literacy will provide a basis to examine common techniques and enable a new wave of research more rooted in learning theories. In ten chapters, the book is designed to attract an audience from geographic information systems science, geomatics, spatial information science, cartography, information technology, and educational technology as focus disciplines.
Recent studies show that the number of students who select to study Geography in Malaysian secondary schools, and their level of achievement in the subject, has decreased. The main factor is lack of motivation. Over multiple decades, a large and growing body of literature has indicated that ICT enhances students’ motivation to learn and their learning outcome. The studies demonstrate that the use of ICT in teaching activities provides more fun in an authentic learning environment, and increases learning autonomy, interaction, and collaboration. It is, therefore, a rich opportunity for motivating students to study. In addition, despite an increased interest among scholars to investigate the impact of ICT integrated Geography teaching on students’ motivation and achievement, none have investigated the effects of GIS as a new technological teaching tool on students’ Geography learning goals and their learning outcomes. The idea for this book originated from the author’s PhD study to examine the effects of GIS-based instruction on secondary school student Geography learning goals and their learning outcomes. This book is highly beneficial for Geography teachers to use multiple teaching methods and pedagogies in a GIS integrated teaching environment to cultivate underachieving students’ mastery goal, performance-approach goal and learning, and to decrease avoidance behaviour in learning the subject. Although GIS is widely used in Malaysia, it has not been embraced by the Malaysian education system and is absent from the Geography curriculums in the primary and secondary school contexts. Hence, writing of this book will also help the Curriculum Development Centre and Ministry of Education Malaysia develop a GIS-based teaching module to enhance the learning motivation of Geography and improve the student level of achievement.
In recent years there has been increased attention paid to the importance of assessment in Geographical Education, the chosen subject for this book. Assessment is an important tool for collecting information about student learning and for providing timely data to inform key stakeholders including students, teachers, parents and policymakers. To be effective, assessment needs to be valid, reliable and fair. Validity is about ensuring that we assess what we claim we are assessing. Reliability is about measuring performance and understanding in a consistent way. Without validity and reliability, assessment is unlikely to provide equitable opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know and can do. As geography educators it is therefore important that we identify the core concepts and skills in geography that we want students to master. We need a clear understanding of what the progression of learning looks like for each concept and skill so we can develop fit for purpose assessments that track and improve student learning. While there is a substantial literature on evidence-based assessment in secondary school contexts, research exploring best-practice assessment in geography is rare. This is a concern given the distinctive nature of geography and the important role of assessment in the learning process. This scholarly collection seeks to address this issue by connecting research in educational assessment with the domain of geography. The chapters are written by leading researchers in Geographical Education from across the globe. These chapters provide examples of innovation through the collective voices of geography teacher educator scholars from across Australia, USA, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore. What unifies the work in this book, is that each chapter focuses on a key feature of the discipline of geography, providing scholarly examples of evidence-based practices for assessing student’s knowledge and skills.
Social Studies Today will help educators—teachers, curriculum specialists, and researchers—think deeply about contemporary social studies education. More than simply learning about key topics, this collection invites readers to think through some of the most relevant, dynamic, and challenging questions animating social studies education today. With 12 new chapters highlighting recent developments in the field, the second edition features the work of major scholars such as James Banks, Diana Hess, Joel Westheimer, Meira Levinson, Sam Wineburg, Beth Rubin, Keith Barton, Margaret Crocco, and more. Each chapter tackles a specific question on issues such as the difficulties of teaching historical thinking in the classroom, responding to high-stakes testing, teaching patriotism, judging the credibility of Internet sources, and teaching with film and geospatial technologies. Accessible, compelling, and practical, these chapters—full of rich examples and illustrations—showcase some of the most original thinking in the field, and offer pre- and in-service teachers alike a panoramic window on social studies curricula and instruction and new ways to improve them. Walter C. Parker is Professor and Chair of Social Studies Education and (by courtesy) Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington, Seattle.
This book constitutes the proceedings of the 25th Italian Conference on Geomatics for Green and Digital Transition, ASITA 2022, held in Genova, Italy, in June 2022. The 33 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 60 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Positioning, Navigation and Operational Geodesy; Data exploitation: services and tools; Geo(big)data, GeoAnalytics, AI and Decision Support; Agriculture and Forestry; Cultural Heritage and Landscape Analysis; Environmental Monitoring and Analysis; and Sustainable Development and Climate Change.
Education has undergone a series of changes based on the new technologies, strategies, and best practices that have been developed in recent years. Specifically, the way various subjects are taught has developed considerably as education turns toward a more digital approach. Geography education is no different and has had to adjust to these innovative practices in order to provide students with the best possible curricula. Didactic Strategies and Resources for Innovative Geography Teaching presents educational strategies and resources to promote cross-disciplinary approaches to teaching geographic knowledge and skills. The book also discusses how geography education boosts essential cognitive and attitudinal processes in personal development, fosters critical thinking, and builds a society committed to its environment. Covering key topics such as mobile learning, natural learning environments, and geographic information systems, this reference work is ideal for teachers, geographers, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.
Debates in Geography Education encourages early career teachers, experienced teachers and teacher educators to engage with and reflect on key issues, concepts and debates. It aims to enable readers to reach their own informed judgements with deeper theoretical knowledge and understanding. The second edition is fully updated in light of the latest research, policy and practice in the field, as well as key changes to the curriculum and examination specifications. Expert contributors provide a range of perspectives on international, historical and policy contexts in order to deepen our understanding of significant debates in geography education. Key debates include: geography's identity as an academic discipline; what constitutes knowledge in geography; places and regional geography; what it means to think geographically; constructing the curriculum; how we link assessment to making progress in geography; the contribution of fieldwork and outdoor experiences; technology and the use of Geographical Information; school geography and employability; understanding the gap between school and university geography; evidence-based practice and research in geography education. The comprehensive, rigorous coverage of these key issues, together with carefully annotated selected further reading, will help support and shape further research and writing. Debates in Geography Education is a key resource that is essential reading for all teachers and researches who wish to extend their grasp of the place of geography in education. Mark Jones is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK David Lambert is Professor of Geography Education at UCL Institute of Education, London, UK
This book is an initiative presented by the Commission on Geographical Education of the International Geographical Union. It focuses particularly on what has been learned from geospatial projects and research from the past decades of implementing geospatial technologies (GST) in formal and informal education. The objective of this publication is to inform an international audience of teachers, professionals, scholars, and policymakers about the state of the art and prospects of geospatial practices (GPs) as organized activities that use GST and lessons learned in relation to geographical education. GST make up an advanced body of knowledge developed by practitioners of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS), global positioning systems, (GPS), and digital cartography (DC). GST have long been applied in many different sectors; however, their first use in higher education began in the early 1980s and then diffused to secondary schools during the 1990s. Starting with GIS and RS, it evolved into a much broader context, as GST expanded to include GPS and DC with new communication technologies and Internet applications. GST have been used around the world as a combination of tools and special techniques to make research, teaching, and learning more effective.
Technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning. It can help affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent approaches to learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners. Technology-Supported Teaching and Research Methods for Educators provides innovative insights into the utilization and maintenance of technology-supported teaching and research methods for educators. The content within this publication represents the work of e-learning, digital technologies, and current issues and trends in the field of teaching and learning in the context of contemporary technologies. It is a vital reference source for school educators, professionals, school administrators, academicians, researchers, and graduate-level students seeking coverage on topics centered on the integration of effective technologies that will support educators and students.
A key challenge facing higher education institutions is that of retaining students. Though gaming technologies are increasingly being used in support of learning initiatives, gamification can also assist with attendance by increasing engagement. By using gaming technology to map educational content, teachers can engage and motivate learners through adaptive infrastructures and game thinking challenges. Gamification Strategies for Retention, Motivation, and Engagement in Higher Education: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a critical scholarly resource that examines gaming technologies as effectively utilized learning tools to improve retention, engagement, motivation, and problem solving. Featuring a wide range of topics such as higher education, augmented reality, and socialization, this book is ideal for academicians, administrators, researchers, IT specialists, education professionals, and students
Opportunities for developing innovative approaches in teaching and learning geography have been rapidly increasing in recent years. This is in part because of the spread of new technologies that allow access to geographic information and geographic geo-media resources. These new tools offer broad access to information and open data sources. They have revolutionised the way in which teachers of geography can work with pupils and students. “Education for Digital Earth” is now possible. As such, the exclusive use of traditional approaches to the teaching of geography is no longer reasonable today. The European Commission-funded network initiative, digital-earth.eu, promotes innovation and best practices in the implementation of geo-media as a digital learning environment for school learning and teaching. This book, supported by EUROGEO, analyses the main challenges facing geographical education – curriculum, methodology, teacher education and training and geospatial technologies – and illustrates different examples of the use of geoinformation in geographical education in several European countries.
