Understanding geographic changes has become an indispensable element in geography education. Describing and analyzing changes in space require spatial thinking skills emphasized in geography curriculum but often pose challenges for secondary school students. This schoolbased research targets a specific strand of spatial thinking skills and investigates whether students using geospatial technology, such as Google Earth, are able to develop their thinking about spatio-temporal changes. An experiment was conducted in a Singaporean secondary school in which skill development was framed within the formal geography curriculum. It compared the effectiveness of two pedagogical approaches: learning with Google Earth versus traditional instruction without the use of such a technology. Findings indicate that the use of Google Earth significantly increased students' ability to identify spatial and temporal changes and analyse these changes. Qualitative data complemented the results by showing that Google Earth could offer students more opportunities to observe and infer changes, thus facilitating their understanding about the dynamic and the complex nature of changes.
Describing changesIdentifying change z = À0.205, p = 0.838 z = À3.091, p** = 0.002 Describing changes in property z = À1.076, p = 0.282 z = À2.422, p* = 0.015 Representing changes z = À0.408, p = 0.683 z = À1.413, p = 0.158
Analyzing changesAnalyzing changes in relations z = À2.109, p* = 0.035 z = À1.672, p = 0.095 Reasoning about dynamics z = À 0.053, p = 0.957 z = À1.432, p = 0.152 Associating with changes z = À0.045, p = 0.964 z = À2.617, p** = 0.009