16. ICT in Education and Training
Research Workshop
Developing Students' Thinking Skills in Geography Lessons Through Educational Scenarios in a Digital Environment
Irina Kliziene, Dalia Umantaite -Vaivadiene, Aldona Augustiniene, Asta Paskovske
Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania
Presenting Author: Kliziene, Irina
Developing higher thinking skills in geography is very relevant in today's realities, so it is essential to improve and develop them and look for new ways of developing them in the best and most effective way. The annual national tests of pupils' achievements provide an opportunity to obtain feedback on pupils' knowledge and its application and on developing higher-order thinking skills in geography. Using the insights from the results of these tests, it is the higher-order thinking tasks where pupils struggle the most and perform the worst. The updated general curriculum also emphasizes the importance of higher thinking skills. The curricula contain seven competencies, of which cognitive competence is linked to the development of higher thinking skills. The General Education Standards for Geography state that students should be able to recognise and understand the overall geographical context based on sound factual knowledge, judgment and problem-solving skills (Wuttke, 2005), to educate students to become responsible citizens, and to provide them with the opportunity to engage in social discourse. Developing competencies is one of the most critical objectives in the Geography curriculum. In the scientific area, digital environments are proposed to develop these processes, as they offer more opportunities for creating effective feedback, and searching for information, multimedia content creates even more possibilities for analysing problems, and the possibility of working independently or collaboratively. Developing critical thinking is proposed through virtual reality and various smart technologies, thus increasing students' engagement in problem-solving, achieving better understanding and awareness, and bringing a new dimension to their learning approach. Therefore, it is essential to explore the possibilities of using intelligent tools and to develop educational scenarios that include an educational environment, a model of action where social and digital environments interact. Such educational scenarios could be used by educators teaching the subject of geography to develop higher thinking skills. Failure to develop higher thinking skills or inadequate development of higher thinking skills, results in poorer student learning outcomes, narrowing education to the teaching of knowledge, and a lack of development of thinking skills (Palavan, 2020). Educators' discretionary choice of methods and tools to develop higher thinking skills produces ineffective results. As a result, it is challenging to develop these skills, and pupils do not set themselves higher learning goals or improve.
The study aims to improve students' higher thinking skills in geography through educational scenarios in a digital environment.
1. to analyse the possibilities of developing pupils' higher thinking skills in geography lessons by applying educational scenarios in a digital environment;
2. to identify students' higher thinking skills in geography lessons through the use of eye-tracking methodology and think-aloud protocols.
The idea behind this research includes the following questions: how to you choose and apply an appropriate conative, metacognitive or other learning strategy? We will explore digital scenarios in the subject of geography by focusing on the problem-solving process, the development of higher thinking skills (Rosiyanti et al., 2021; Nurkaeti, 2018), for which we will apply a eye-tracking approach for a deeper analysis (Strohmair et al., 2020; Schindler et al., 2019). The think-aloud method will be applied for a more in-depth uncovering of the decision process (Rosenzweig et al., 2011; Ericsson, 2006; Shwerdtfeger and Budke, 2021). To formulate arguments in geography lessons, students must engage with the geography problem and use classroom materials to gather data to support their views. A special feature of geography lessons is that students can link arguments from natural science (physical geography) and social science (human geography), and factual and normative arguments can also be used (Budke, 2013).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedSix educational scenarios have been developed for 2023-2024 in the digital environment (the updated general education curricula focus on developing higher thinking skills in 6 dimensions). This study used an eye-tracking quasi-experiment to quantitatively evaluate the changes in the map-based spatial ability of 9th-grade students by comparing two geography progress monitoring tests (pre-test and post-test).
Students coping strategies (higher thinking skills) in geography problems are assessed in geography lessons using the think-aloud methodology applied during the problem-solving process, with only follow-up questions after the problem-solving, and the eye-tracking methodology in the geography problem-solving tasks.
Research methods:
Eye-tracking is becoming an important research method in geography education and a prerequisite for research-based solutions to improve geography education. This research informs and enables the assessment of cognitive processes in the learner that would not otherwise be observed, or even consciously explained, but are reflected in eye movements, i.e., the observation of geography problem-solving processes, decision-making techniques and strategies, cognitive load and attentional retention is made possible by the tracking and recording of eye movements. Researchers recommend that the relationship between mental representations and eye movements should be monitored while working on the task, not after completion (Hartmann et al., 2016). Therefore, student research is highly relevant and will provide new data for analysing the problem.
Thinking aloud protocols, in which pupils are asked to name their thoughts and actions during a task aloud, is a way for the research participant to verbally describe cognitive and metacognitive processes, which are captured by the researcher (by listening, recording and later transcribing) in think-aloud protocols (Ericsson, 2006). This is thought to help construct the students' working processes and identify the problems that emerge in their wording. In addition, this method will aim to understand better students' thinking processes and intermediate stages of writing (Dannecker 2018).
The Geography Progress Monitoring Test (GPMT) has been created to respond to all the requirements of the Framework. The tests are designed to cover all domains of activity and the items are evenly distributed across achievement and cognitive ability groups.
Data analysis methods: qualitative content analysis will be used to analyse the qualitative data . Sample: twenty 9th-grade students aged 15-16 in the current school year, in their adolescence (based on a study conducted by Schwerdtfeger, Budke, 2021).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn the pre-test to measure progress in geography, we found the lowest scores were in the higher thinking skills tasks - meaning connections identification, critical evaluation of information, and finding solutions.
The results discovered in our study would direct educators to find a reliable way of improving students' spatial ability and enhancing their ability to solve social and environmental problems with spatial thinking.
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