?Pub Inc Although Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been favorably received as innovative and exciting tools in environmental education recently, there is a paucity of research into their effectiveness in enhancing meaningful learning in geography and related sciences, and also in studies that address how students learn GIS in the classroom. The primary purposes of this study were first to investigate how students' learning of attitudes and knowledge about the environment were affected when GIS-integrated place-based environmental education was introduced. Secondly, the study also aimed to find evidence of the effectiveness of GIS in improving the student's spatial thinking ability. The Children's Environmental Attitude and Knowledge Scales (CHEAKS) were adopted to measure the temporal differences in the students' environmental attitudes and knowledge before and after the intervention of three different treatment conditions: the control group; the GPS-integrated fieldtrip activities group; and the GIS-integrated lessons and GPS-integrated fieldtrip activities group. Results of data analyses from the pre- and post-test indicated that students displayed a moderately favorable attitude toward the environment, but their attitudes were not greatly changed by environmental education, regardless of the types of methods used in this study. Although all students' knowledge of environmental issues increased after instruction in the three groups, the intervention of both GIS-integrated lessons and GPS-integrated fieldtrips was more effective than either GPS-integrated fieldtrips or non-GIS instruction. The results have some implications in the design of a curriculum for GIS-integrated interdisciplinary lessons. In order to maximize the effect of integrating GIS technology into the classroom, it is necessary to combine GPS fieldtrips with GIS lessons, instead of adding just GPS fieldtrips to the traditional environmental curriculum. Although a fieldtrip with a GPS device is also a good source of place-based learning, students are able to visualize the local data and look up the database behind the geo-visualization when a GPS fieldtrip is implemented with GIS lessons. The present study displayed the effect of GPS-integrated fieldtrips on the students' learning in a passive manner due to practical constraints. I had to work with intact groups and only three classes were available which were taught by the same instructor. Thus, a further study involving the administration of GIS-integrated lessons without GPS fieldtrips could reveal the effect of GPS-integrated fieldtrips. In addition, investigation of the compound effects of GIS-integrated lessons and GPS-integrated fieldtrips may be required to fully comprehend the determinants of students' spatial thinking abilities. To identify and evaluate the effect of GIS-integrated lessons on spatial thinking and geographical skills, students' conversations with their partners were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using discourse analysis. Students were interviewed and maps and posters were also examined to provide a full account of the context in and beyond the classroom. Results based on the students' conversations can be summarized as follows: students' collaborative learning and metacognition are not directly influenced by GIS-integrated lessons. That is, the amount of time students are exposed to GIS-integrated lessons session by session does not, on its own, motivate students' collaborative learning or metacognition. Rather, the instruction design seems to have a more significant effect on collaborative learning and metacognition. More active learning occurs when GIS is integrated with a student-centered class instead of a teacher-centered one. With regard to the effect of learning-with-GIS as compared with learning-about-GIS, the results reflected that learning-with-GIS classes seem to contribute to students' GIS learning almost equally or more than in learning-about-GIS classes even though any specific GIS functions are not intentionally stressed or taught. Students also perceive a series of GIS functions as a type of procedural knowledge such as data collection and data input, data input and data storage and retrieval, and data manipulation and data output. Findings based on the interviews, maps and posters revealed that the students' environmental conceptions were dramatically changed in terms of their awareness of connectedness regarding the idea of watershed. The lessons developed for this project also prove effective while using a watershed as an organizing principle. Moreover, the lessons of the present study are strengthened by GIS, which give students great control over spatial thinking and geovisualization.

Recent studies show that the number of students who select to study Geography in Malaysian secondary schools, and their level of achievement in the subject, has decreased. The main factor is lack of motivation. Over multiple decades, a large and growing body of literature has indicated that ICT enhances students’ motivation to learn and their learning outcome. The studies demonstrate that the use of ICT in teaching activities provides more fun in an authentic learning environment, and increases learning autonomy, interaction, and collaboration. It is, therefore, a rich opportunity for motivating students to study. In addition, despite an increased interest among scholars to investigate the impact of ICT integrated Geography teaching on students’ motivation and achievement, none have investigated the effects of GIS as a new technological teaching tool on students’ Geography learning goals and their learning outcomes. The idea for this book originated from the author’s PhD study to examine the effects of GIS-based instruction on secondary school student Geography learning goals and their learning outcomes. This book is highly beneficial for Geography teachers to use multiple teaching methods and pedagogies in a GIS integrated teaching environment to cultivate underachieving students’ mastery goal, performance-approach goal and learning, and to decrease avoidance behaviour in learning the subject. Although GIS is widely used in Malaysia, it has not been embraced by the Malaysian education system and is absent from the Geography curriculums in the primary and secondary school contexts. Hence, writing of this book will also help the Curriculum Development Centre and Ministry of Education Malaysia develop a GIS-based teaching module to enhance the learning motivation of Geography and improve the student level of achievement.

Learning to Think Spatially examines how spatial thinking might be incorporated into existing standards-based instruction across the school curriculum. Spatial thinking must be recognized as a fundamental part of Kâ€"12 education and as an integrator and a facilitator for problem solving across the curriculum. With advances in computing technologies and the increasing availability of geospatial data, spatial thinking will play a significant role in the information-based economy of the twenty-first century. Using appropriately designed support systems tailored to the Kâ€"12 context, spatial thinking can be taught formally to all students. A geographic information system (GIS) offers one example of a high-technology support system that can enable students and teachers to practice and apply spatial thinking in many areas of the curriculum.

As political, economic, and environmental issues increasingly spread across the globe, the science of geography is being rediscovered by scientists, policymakers, and educators alike. Geography has been made a core subject in U.S. schools, and scientists from a variety of disciplines are using analytical tools originally developed by geographers. Rediscovering Geography presents a broad overview of geography's renewed importance in a changing world. Through discussions and highlighted case studies, this book illustrates geography's impact on international trade, environmental change, population growth, information infrastructure, the condition of cities, the spread of AIDS, and much more. The committee examines some of the more significant tools for data collection, storage, analysis, and display, with examples of major contributions made by geographers. Rediscovering Geography provides a blueprint for the future of the discipline, recommending how to strengthen its intellectual and institutional foundation and meet the demand for geographic expertise among professionals and the public.

The best education system provides the best education to all children, irrespective of their ethnic group or socio-economic background. Malaysian education system aims to ensure that all children, irrespective of who their parents are and where they are schooling, will be equipped with the basic needs to succeed in their future educational endeavours and eventually in daily life and the workforce. Malaysian education system strives to narrow the socio-economic gap, between rural and urban as well as gender in student achievement by 2020. Reducing socioeconomic disparities between rural and urban are likely to have an impact on the achievement gap among students. The education system in Malaysia will actively support social mobility by providing additional supports to those who are less fortunate, and thus ensure socio-economic background of students is no longer a determinant factor of their success in life. However, in the effort to realize equity in education to all children in Malaysia, we are confronted with all sorts of problems and challenges. Empirical studies with scientific explanations will provide insights into how education for underprivileged primary and secondary students in Malaysia can be further improved to ensure equal accessibility to quality education. This book attempts to bring together prominent researchers and educators in the field of rural education to share their findings, experiences, reflection, and vision on the emerging trends in rural education in the country. The book will be of special interest to academics and researchers in the field of rural education, curriculum designers, policy makers, educators, teacher educators, trainee teachers, school principals, school inspectorates, undergraduate and postgraduate students in universities and colleges in the country.

Spatial Citizenship Education is an innovative exploration of ways to engage and promote citizenship through a deeper understanding of spatial and geographic perspectives. The authors propose that recognizing the relationship between space and citizenry enables productive and positive engagement with important societal issues such as equity, justice, and environmental stewardship. By providing a historical overview of geography’s contribution to citizenship education, including progress made and challenges faced by educational reform movements, this collection shows how geography can contribute to a new type of citizen—one with an enhanced understanding of the world as seen through the key concepts of geography: space, place, scale, power, and human-environment relationships. Through a theoretical explanation of key citizenship ideas, and by providing practical, classroom-based teaching tools, this volume will be essential for geography education researchers and social studies educators alike.