USING GIS TO SUPPORT PROCESS BASED GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION IN TURKEY:

A CASE STUDYEyüp Artvinli

Eskişehir Osmangazi UniversityFaculty of Education

TURKEY======================================

“LEARNING WITH GI CONFERENCE, 03-08, 2011, SALZBURG, AUSTRIA

Research Problem• How secondary school students’

attitudes are related to GIS before and after GIS lessons?

• Is a GIS lesson has any effect to process based geography education ?

• Which processes can be developed according to other teaching-learning methods in a GIS lesson?

What for GIS in Schools ? The Aim?• The Pyramid of

Education Phases in GIS (Siegmund et. al., 2007; Schleicher, 2007, p. 25, cited in Schubert & Uphues, 2009, p. 277)

• To teach GIS at the bottom of the pyramid, from 5th class; to teach with GIS from 6/7th classes; to learn with GIS from 8th/9th classes; and to research with GIS from 10th/11th classes are all proposed stages that can be applied...

The Contribution of GIS to process Based Education

1. Inquiry-Based Learning,2. Visual-Spatial Comprehension

Power,3. Reconciling Information in order to

Define the Current Relationship,4. Developing Thinking Skills,5. Professional Learning, 6. Motivation

• A part of action research in 10 cities of Turkey. It will be completed at the end of 2011.

Methodology• This research is a relational model for

determining whether secondary school students' attitudes towards GIS differ according to GIS lessons. Models of this type usually measure statistically the degree of relationship and provide correlations (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006). It is also a sub- experimental study which aims to determine the difference before and after the GIS course.

Data Gathering Instruments • The GIS Attitude Scale: The scale

was developed by Al-Kamali (2007) in order to determine the attitudes of students to GIS.

• The scale is between the I completely disagree and I completely agree intervals and consists of 24 five-point Likert-type items on a single dimension.

• Before and after the GIS lesson the survey were applied to students…

Findings• A sample standart:• “Students evaluate the changes in

the places where they live according to different terms”

• Ready database was given to students,Which include some variables in the

population of places.These are: these are population

densities, urban and rural population and increasing rates of them in Turkey in years of 1935, 1950, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010.

1. Basic concepts were discussed with students about population,

2. Students were divided 6 groups,3. Every group was asked to make

the map of each subject about:

1. Gruop: Population densities according o years in cities of Turkey.

2. Gruop: Urban population maps of cities,

3. Group: Rural population maps of cities,4. Group: The percentage of urban

population according to total population

• 5.Group: The percentage of rural population according to total population,

• 6.Group: Rates of urban and rural population according to cities,

• When the results obtained are analyzed it is seen that the item before the lesson“Using GIS in geography lessons helps students to learn better ” (X=4.31, SD=0.82) is the most dominant item. And after the lesson was (X=4.60, SD=0.90)

• “I would be happy if I had the opportunity to use GIS in geography lessons” before the lesson (X=4.23, SD=0.94) items follow the previous item. And after the lesson (X=4.78, SD=0.98)

Cities population in 1935 in Turkey

Population of Cities in 1950 in Turkey

Population of Cities in 1965 in Turkey

Population of Cities in 1980 in Turkey

At the end students were asked:• Explain the changes in the populaiton of your

city in years,• Compare it with another city which you

wonder…?• Comment about the cities which are in the top

and don in each year,• Create your own comment about the reasons of

all these differenet development in population ?• Make your own report to present to other

groups…

CONCLUSION• Learning process was affected by

GIS tool,• Students who have no motivaiton

in subject managed to join lessons,

• , it can be said that the basic levels of GIS-teaching GIS or teaching with GIS are teacher-centred practices in Turkish schools. Because a student who doesn’t practice cannot be motivated enough in a complex lesson process with passive methods, that same student cannot attain the desired performance.

• For this reason, GIS applications in secondary school geography lessons should be designed at the level of learn with GIS and research with GIS.

• GIS applications today are professional skills which require a special area of expertise. Producing GIS software which intermediate level computer user can use without taking up too much time is required. Simple interfaces of GIS technology producers and simple and widely available methods are not being developed.

THANK YOU!