GIS tool develop students' answers
A geography inquiry approach by Yishun Secondary School
Abstract
With the introduction of inquiry based learning in the new geography syllabus, Yishun Secondary School embarked on this journey to give students the opportunity to be exposed to explore relationships, investigate and make sense of geographical data. We also wanted students to become more familiar with spatial patterns and look at issues at different scales.
Our key aim was to get students to be more comfortable in analysing data, able to see spatial patterns, deduce relationship between factors and explain the reasons for the patterns/trend.
Introduction
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an online mapping tool to capture, store, manage, manipulate, analyse and display geographical spatial data (Liu & Zhu, 2008; Incekara, 2012). For years, the use of GIS has been limited to universities and institutions of higher learning but now there is a greater access to GIS softwares in secondary schools has meant that we can now explore how it can enhance our geography curriculum. As such, it allows students to develop and improve on their geographical skills.
With the current curriculum shift in the teaching from behaviourist to constructivist approach in learning, GIS provides a new teaching and learning tool for teachers to conduct inquiry based learning such as problem based learning and also to enhance their spatial cognition and geographic learning.
Literature Review
As we move closer into the digital era, students these days are more exposed and more inclined towards the use of technology. GIS, being a technological-based tool, has become widely used across developed countries such as USA and Canada to support the teaching and learning of geography lessons (Demirci, 2008). This has provided endless opportunities. Many researches have emphasized the benefits of integrating GIS into secondary school geography lessons (Llyod, 2001; Kerski, 2003; Demirci, 2008; Incekara, 2012). One of the main advantages that most of the studies had reaped from incorporating GIS was the affordance of inquiry-based learning and problem solving in lessons. This is in line with the educational aim of Singapore of shifting towards a more constructivism approach whereby teachers are more of a facilitator and students synthesize their own learning (Liu & Zhu, 2008). As such, GIS presents itself comfortably to support the teaching and learning of geography and other subjects.
However, some researches have also warned about the challenges posed from using GIS for geography lessons. These include the availability of technical support, reluctance of teachers to learn and the lack of time to prepare and insufficient know-hows to use the system to its full potential (Kerski, 2003; Demirci, 2008). Despite the obstacles, the benefits far outweigh the challenges due to the potential GIS can bring teaching and learning to a new level.
Research Question
Methodology
This study focused on two geography classes – an experimental and a control class. The experimental class consists of 27 students. On the other hand, the control group involves 24 students. Both classes were Secondary Three Express students. The students were exposed to GIS only in the second semester of the year, through learning the topic of weather and climate. They learnt plate tectonics in the first semester without the use of GIS.
In the 6 weeks during the intervention, all students were taught content in Variable weather and changing climate, KQ 1 (Why do different places experience different weather and climate?)
The experimental groups used ArcGIS Online to understand how temperature changes with factors such as latitude, altitude and distance from sea. The also made use of the data in the GIS to make decision on which part of India to visit during the December holidays.
Pre-tests on spatial awareness and content knowledge were conducted prior to the start of the topic. The results were tabulated with the data from post-tests which included a question on climate in the SA2 examination as well as the results for the full Geography component. The results will be discussed in the subsequent part of this paper.
Results
In order to understand if the students have developed skills in answering questions, we analyzed student responses to open ended questions. Results from statistical tests are inconclusive. We had expected that the GIS class would do better than the non-GIS class but the results indicate that even though the difference is not statistically significant, the GIS class experienced a slight dip in their scores from pre-test to post-test, while the non GIS class students had a slight increase in scores. We suspect that part of the issue is that even though these two classes are not statistically different in terms of their pre-test scores; and hence considered statistically comparable, the fact that the control class students did better in the pre-test and at the post-test compared to the GIS class suggest that they are in fact not comparable in terms of their geography ability.
a) Quantitative Results
There is no statistically significant difference in how the experimental class scored in the pre-test (both full and abridged version) compared to the Control class. This can be seen in the p values being > 0.05 (0.786 and 0.728) in Table 1 below.
The results of the independent sample tests, using Levene's Test for Equality of Variances and t-test for Equality of Means, for the pre-test are tabulated in Table 2 below.
Table 3 and 4 below shows the results of the post-tests for both classes. From the tables, the classes continue not being significantly different from each other in the post-test as well.
As such, further test is required to compare the results. When a paired t-test was conducted, for the experimental class (n=22), there is no statistically significant difference between pre-test ad post test scores. When looking at the abridged test, there was a small dip in scores (-0.136) and a small increase in scores in the full test (0.318). However, these changes are not statistically significant.
b) Qualitative Results
It is inconclusive as both groups show improvement in the quality of answers in terms of structure, analysis, data being used. Nevertheless, we also looked at the students answer scripts for selected questions and found that many students were able to structure their answers better. Furthermore, the students use data from the given figures and tables more often in their answers in the post test. As such, even though they may not have been able to score better in the post test for various reasons such as language and content issues, we are heartened to note the positive change in terms of demonstrating the required geographical skills that was acquired from the use of GIS.
Discussion on findings
Two sets of data were looked into: the qualitative and quantitative. However, the quantitative result is not significant to distinguish the effectiveness of using GIS between the Experimental and the Control classes. These could be due to several factors. These factors include the duration of the study which was not long enough, the scaffolding provided by teacher, prior knowledge of the student which they have acquired and the teaching pedagogy selected by the teacher which could be more didactic than inquiry-based.
However, an improvement in the qualitative data was seen. Students were able to analyse data and describe the data. Students’ answers show the understanding of structure in answering the question. Students’ confidence level improved and higher order of critical thinking was seen in their answer as they were able to understand why the western part of India was wet during certain months of the year.
The study taken is not conclusive enough to prove that using GIS has significantly influenced the performance of the students. However, students from the experimental group showed improvement in their ability at looking and understanding of data. They were able to describe, interpret, analyse, make link and relationship to the data and come up with their conclusion using GIS.
Conclusion
The integration of ArcGIS in our geography lesson had brought about positive outcomes.
Lessons are geared towards student-centred learning and students see the purpose behind the concepts that they are learning. They were more comfortable with data and were able to analyse to see trends and patterns.
For teachers to reap the benefits of GIS, they must have explicit goals for GIS lessons especially in terms of exploring alternative scenarios and master analysis concepts and spatial analysis must be explicitly taught. Teachers also have to spent time to explore the software and be familiar with the immense opportunities available for lessons. Training may also be required for teachers to be able to be fluent in the use of GIS and integrating it into their curriculum.
Recommendations
Reaping the benefits of this project, we have extended the use of ArcGIS to other subject such as Social Studies. To allow more student-centred learning and allow students to be critical thinkers, we used GIS software. We mobilised the students to use the ArcGIS app to capture data and to do analysis on-site. All the students’ data is then collated is collected to form a layer of data in a particular spatial location. This brings GIS to another level with the ease and convenience in which smart phones can be utilised by students to modify their own maps.
GIS is not limited to just the geography curriculum but can be utilised for the other subjects. The immense opportunities avalaible will be explored and will bring about greater benefits in teaching and learning.