Spatial thinking is a crucial aspect of geography education with which all citizens should be equipped. This study employs eye-tracking technology to research strategies (their repertoire, distribution, effectiveness, and adaptiveness) used by upper-secondary students when analyzing spatial patterns with thematic maps. The results show that…

Knowledge of geography is one of the main elements in solving problems such as urbanization, socio-economic inequalities, disease, migration, natural disasters. It is also seen that importance is given to the acquisition of geographical skills in educational programs. The spatial thinking skill that provides geospatial information is a geographic…

The goal of the present study was to characterize high school students' (n = 338) exposure to geospatial technologies and investigate factors predicting enrollment in a GIS course. Students who reported using GIS were almost 10 times more likely to enroll than students without experience using GIS. Males were more than 3 times more likely to…

This study considers the role and nature of co-thought gestures when students process map-based mathematics tasks. These gestures are typically spontaneously produced silent gestures which do not accompany speech and are represented by small movements of the hands or arms often directed toward an artefact. The study analysed 43 students (aged…

Certain secondary school subjects, such as geography, contain topics which are based on mathematical concepts. However, some geography teachers either fail to recognize this connection or choose to ignore it when they teach. Instead, they present the subject matter as a collection of facts, which need to be memorized and reproduced by the pupils.…

Most teachers feel confident espousing the benefits of using picture books in English lessons, talking about the importance of using the illustrations to enhance the text, engaging students and fostering a love and appreciation of literature. How many teachers passionately advocate the use of these same picture books in mathematics lessons? This…

Presents a distance and time map exercise designed as a crime scenario. Explains that students must determine whether one individual could have committed a series of crimes in a given time period. Includes graph production that gives practice in interpreting and expressing aspects of spatial information. (DK)

This research attempts to diagnose the skills required for successful spatial performance in order to provide a theoretical foundation for military training in such tasks as map reading, surveying, and navigation. It is known that successful performance on spatial tasks depends on task requirements (e.g., requisite knowledge, alternative paths to…

Describes 4 activities for levels K-2, 3-5, 4-6, and 6-8 and a family activity that asks students to describe their community; use coordinates to represent the 4 voyages of Columbus; write a story based on a line graph of Lewis and Clark's expedition; determine serving sizes for astronauts in space; and investigate different modes of…