This study analyzes the status of GIS in schools in thirty-three countries and proposes recommendations for advancing the implementation and effectiveness of GIS in secondary education from an international perspective. Thirty-three countries have been evaluated in the study to assess the global landscape of educational GIS by analyzing how GIS is recognized, approached, and used across the world with chief challenges, opportunities, and case studies. As the study revealed, the current global landscape of GIS remains small for secondary education; however, the convergence of citizen science, emphasis on spatial thinking, mobile devices, open data, and Web-based map services could cause a significant increase in the numbers of schools, educators, and students teaching and learning with GIS.

The Global Landscape of GIS in Secondary Education

The geography fieldtrip is a well-consolidated learning mode, but may become a procedural teaching strategy in geography. In geographical education, fieldtrips foster students’ overall knowledge-building processes to become world citizens, and thus to be fully committed to the Earth’s sustainability. Fieldtrips prepare students for applying and connecting knowledge in a real context. However, the geography fieldtrip may lack robust proposals on challenges and achievements that are clearly identified as assessable geographical geoabilities for competences. This paper offers a geography competence-oriented fieldtrip assessment framework. Project-based learning is chosen as the didactic approach, in which the fieldtrip project is built upon a real-world acute question of the students’ interest and choice, and solutions are reached following the enquiry learning method. The proposal brings cognitive domain (geographical thinking) and process (geospatial thinking) into alignment with geography and cross-cutting competences, corresponding geoabilities and geoskills, and learning outcomes in geography fieldtrips. The framework provides an assessment procedure (learning outcomes, tasks, and evidence) and tools (rubrics of evidence for learning outcomes) for fieldtrip geoskill assessment.

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A Proposal for Geography Competence Assessment in Geography Fieldtrips for Sustainable Education

Current education system requires innovative approach in enhancing students’ understanding in any subjects. One of the innovative approaches that can be implemented in teaching and learning is web based geographic information system (web-based GIS). Not only it is easy to use, it is also freely available online. Therefore this study explores the tools available in the current web-based GIS in teaching and learning of history subject. The method used in this study is through experiments in using the web-based GIS tools namely Google Earth in the Malaysian Form Five history curriculum. For each topic that requires the use of map, Google Earth tools are evaluated. Results show almost all
tools available in Google Earth can be used in all topics that need the application of high-order thinking skills (HOTs). Therefore it is timely that web-based GIS is used as one of the innovative approaches used in education policy.

http://eprints.um.edu.my/13411/1/1262.pdf

Embedding web-based geographic information system (web-based gis) in teaching and learning of history

In this chapter, we focus on the status of Geographic Information System (GIS) in the secondary schools of Canada. We first discuss when and what geography is taught in the elementary through to the high school system. This is followed by a description of GIS education in the country, supported by exemplary applications of GIS in the classroom. The chapter concludes with a summary of obstacles most commonly encountered by GIS educators in schools as well as an optimistic outlook for the future.

Jean Tong

Papers

Canada: Teaching Geography Through Geotechnology Across a Decentralized Curriculum Landscape