An Evaluation of University World Geography Textbook Questions for Components of Spatial Thinking

Scholz, Michael; Huynh, Niem Tu; Brysch, Carmen P.; Scholz, Ruojing W.

doi:10.1080/00221341.2013.872692

Cited by 45 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…In this work, we are based on the methodology developed and applied by Jo and Bednarz (2009) and replicated by Scholz, Brysch, Huynh, Scholz (2014). This methodology is the only known theoretical effort to measure, with a solid scientific foundation, the required level of spatial thinking present in the questions and activities of geography textbooks.…”

Section: Methodology Uses To Analyze Questions and Activities Found Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is good to reaffirm that the data presented, both those of our surveys and those obtained from the North American research's, are the result of the classification carried out only with the questions that effectively involve spatial thinking. The data of the American books presented in chart 2 were taken from the research's conducted by Jo and Bednarz (2009) and Scholz et al (2014).…”

Section: Chart 1 -Percentage Of Questions Demanding Spatial Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cartography teaching and the development of spatial thinking in Brazilian geography textbooks

Duarte

2018

Proc. Int. Cartogr. Assoc.

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Spatial thinking has been recognized as closely related to tools of representation (NRC, 2006) and the maps have been widely pointed out as crucial for the development of that kind of reasoning. Furthermore, the scientific com-munity dedicated to the field of the spatial thinking has been asserting that the abilities encompassed in such a complex cognition can and must be fostered in school. Considering these groundwork, our research focused on the decision to assess the effectiveness of the contribution for the development of student’s spatial thinking, provided by the questions found in Brazilian middle school geography textbooks. The main concern was the proficiency regarding cartographic language.<br> To assure the possibility of comparing our results with some other investigations we decided to use a methodology that was strongly based on the Taxonomy of Spatial Thinking, designed by Injeong Jo and Sarah Bednarz (2009).<br> Counting on those powerful tools we analyzed 6.884 questions in the three most adopted geography textbooks sets in Brazilian middle schools (6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades). For the purpose of enlarging the number of books and countries to be compared, we have also evaluated 2.073 questions that are present in a French geography textbook set edited for the same grades. Using the taxonomy enabled us not only to evaluate if the questions demanded or not the use of the spatial thinking by the students. It also showed us the three general levels of reasoning involved, allowing to discern between low, intermediate and high levels of spatial thinking.

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Section: Methodology Uses To Analyze Questions and Activities Found Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chart 1 -Percentage Of Questions Demanding Spatial Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cartography teaching and the development of spatial thinking in Brazilian geography textbooks

Duarte

2018

Proc. Int. Cartogr. Assoc.

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“…They suggested a simplified taxonomy for evaluating materials, integrating all three components. Scholz et al, 2014) This section has not attempted to comprehensively review spatial-thinking research, but to examine how its evolution has been rooted in many different domains, as widespread as neuroscience, psychology and geography. From this it is clear that spatial thinking involves highly complex cognitive activities.…”

Section: Dimensions Modes and Framework Of Spatial Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They make the case that a spatial thinking taxonomy is a useful tool for designing and selecting questions that integrate the three components of spatial thinking, and for determining the degree of complexity of a question with regards to its use of spatial concepts and the cognitive processes required. Scholz et al (2014) used JO et al's (2010 system to identify the level and type of spatial thinking found in textbook questions (Table 4). They suggested a simplified taxonomy for evaluating materials, integrating all three components.…”

Section: Dimensions Modes and Framework Of Spatial Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The GI-Learner Approach: Learning Lines for Geospatial Thinking in Secondary Schools

Donert¹,

Desmidt²,

Torres³

et al. 2016

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“…Como parámetro de comparación, se realizó el mismo procedimiento con una colección de materiales didácticos franceses destinados a la misma franja de escolaridad. Para realizar la evaluación de esas actividades se utilizó la Taxonomía del Pensamiento Espacial de Jo y Bednarz (2009), creada exactamente para esa finalidad y replicada por Scholz et al (2014). El levantamiento identificó no solo la proporción de cuestiones demandantes del pensamiento espacial, sino también el nivel de los procesos de raciocinio involucrados y el tipo de representación espacial utilizado.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Educação geográfica, cartografia escolar e pensamento espacial no segundo segmento do Ensino Fundamental

Duarte¹

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The author of this thesis believes that Geography Education and School Cartography have both great importance for the development of spatial thinking among students in K-12. This dimension of intelligence is crucial for citizenship and for the practice of many professional and daily activities. Considering such a framework, the main goal of this research is to assess the contribution of Geography Education and School Cartography in Brazilian middle school to enhance student's capacity to think spatially in situations that encompass spatial representations, specially cartographic ones, in geographical contexts. To answer this question we decided to betake the field research known as "spatial thinking", developed mostly in the U.S. during the last two decades. As a consequence we adopted the definition of spatial thinking that was presented in the report of the National Research Council (2006), which has become the main reference in the field: "Spatial thinking-one form of thinking-is based on a constructive amalgam of three elements: concepts of space, tools of representation, and processes of reasoning" (NRC, 2006, ix). Our methodology was based on two interconnected paths. We analyzed the three most adopted Geography textbooks collections for the four years of Brazilian middle school (6 th to 9 th grades) with the purpose of assessing in which extent the exercises in those books are capable of fostering student's spatial thinking. In order to stablish a comparison with Brazilian textbooks we also assessed a French textbook collection destined to the same grade levels. To perform such an assessment, we used the Taxonomy of Spatial Thinking (Jo and Bednarz, 2009) designed for this particular purpose and replied by Scholz et al. (2014). The study identified not only the ratio of questions demanding spatial thinking but also the processes of reasoning involved. The second methodological path was based on the use of the Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT), designed by Lee and Bednarz (2012). We have administered the STAT to 268 students of six different Brazilian schools, all of them in the end of the 9 th grade. After organizing all the data, we compared the Brazilian results with those of two international studies where the same test was administered: one school in the United States (LEE and BEDNARZ, 2012) and three schools in Ruanda (TOMASZEWSKI et al., 2014). Our analysis included both the global results of students overall performance in the test and their accomplishments regarding the eight modes of thinking spatially defined by the authors of the STAT. Our final conclusions were the results of the comparison between the outcomes obtained from our two methodological paths.

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An Evaluation of University World Geography Textbook Questions for Components of Spatial Thinking

Cited by 45 publications

References 49 publications

Cartography teaching and the development of spatial thinking in Brazilian geography textbooks

Cartography teaching and the development of spatial thinking in Brazilian geography textbooks

The GI-Learner Approach: Learning Lines for Geospatial Thinking in Secondary Schools

Educação geográfica, cartografia escolar e pensamento espacial no segundo segmento do Ensino Fundamental

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