Real-world geographers and GIS: relevance, inspiration and developing geographical knowledge

摘要

The place and value of GIS in geography education is fully acknowledged (Bednarz, 2004)with a growing consensus that it can be successfully used in 'promoting spatial literacy; supplementing fieldwork and in enhancing pupils' visualisations of geographical phenomena in increasingly interactive digital environments often through geographical enquiry' (Fargher, 2017b, p. 151). The 2014 National Curriculum for Geography in England states that students should 'interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including ... using GIS to view, analyse and interpret places and data' (DfE, 2013),and examination specifications at GCSE and A level refer to the use of GIS. However, recently there has been increasing discussion as to the purpose of GIS within geography education. For example, Fargher (2017a) sets out the importance of geography teachers considering what forms of geographical thinking can be achieved through using GIS in the classroom. While Walshe (2018) emphasises the capacity for GIS to develop students' powerful geographical knowledge by drawing upon Maude's typology (2017) as shown in Figure 1. In response to this, our recent research considered the potential for GIS in these areas by exploring how integrating programmes using GIS into an A level geography course both develops students' perceptions of the nature and value of GIS and impacts on their acquisition of geographical knowledge (Healy and Walshe, in review).