Survival of the GISSEST

1
Survival of the GISSEST Teachers opinions on
the incorporation of GI-based learning in upper
secondary schools in Finland

• AGIT2008 Learning with Geoinformation,
  University of Salzburg, July 2, 2008

Tino Johansson Department of Geography,
University of Helsinki, Finland
2
Geoinformation at the upper secondary school
level in Finland

• new national curriculum for the upper secondary
  schools in August 2005
• geoinformation was then included into the
  contents of an elective regional study course
  (GE4) in geography
• the course is made up of 22.5 hours of lessons
• the main focus is on a geographical study of a
  region
• key competences are indirectly linked with
  Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and
  geoinformation

3
The challenges for implementation

• most geography teachers were not familiar with
  GIS or geoinformation in Finland
• numerous in-service teacher training courses
  organized across the country
• focus on basic concepts, hands-on training of a
  few professional GIS software, and on utilizing
  existing GIS databases

4
Introduced approaches to learning

• Commonly used by geography educators across the
  world
• enquiry-based learning
• problem-based learning
• students spatial learning skills enhanced
• skills and knowledge that are valued in working
  life and in higher education

5
A need for a study on teachers views and
opinions on geoinformation

• Introduction of geoinformation into upper
  secondary schools has been a state-led top down
  initiative
• teachers have mainly been given a role of passive
  recipients of information and approaches
• however, some geography teachers have started to
  use geoinformation in their courses without
  curriculum support in the beginning of this
  decade
• a need to assess the situation and comprehend
  better the areas where more support is needed at
  schools

6
The on-line questionnaire survey

• An invitation to participate was sent to 380
  Finnish upper secondary school geography and
  biology teachers in 2006
• 83 teachers returned the questionnaire (21.8
  reply rate)
• most respondents were female (59)
• 7.2 of the respondents were Swedish speaking

7
The age structure of the respondents

• The percentage distribution of the respondents
  according to their age

8
Their work experience as teachers

• The percentage distribution of the respondents
  according to their work experience as teachers

9
Previous experience in using GIS software

• Familiarity with the concept of GIS
• About 10 of the respondents were not familiar
  with the concept of GIS
• Most of the respondents had learned about the
  concept in in-service teacher training
• The majority of the respondents (73.5) had
  used some GIS earlier
• MapInfo Professional
• ArcExplorer
• ArcView
• MapInfo ProViewer
• ArcGIS
• But most of them had still less than one week
  experience on using these software !

10
The use of GIS at schools

• Two-thirds of the teachers mentioned that they
  have personally used GIS in upper secondary
  school education
• The most common purpose was to display maps with
  GIS
• Learning to use GIS software was the second
  common purpose
• Enquiry-based learning, and learning spatial
  thinking skills were also important purposes of
  using GIS in education according to the teachers
• It was very common that only one teacher used
  GIS in the majority of upper secondary schools
  where this educational technology was used in the
  first place
• problematic for long-term adoption
• demografic data (who will continue when the
  geoinformation expert teacher retires?)

11
The use of GIS at schools

• Teachers mainly used two types of GIS data at the
  upper secondary schools in Finland
• Free data available in the internet (map
  archives, route map services, Google Earth,
  Citizens Map Portal and data from the Statistics
  Finland
• Commercially available databases from the cd-roms
  attached to the upper secondary school geography
  books
• Free data from local authorities and self-created
  GIS databases were also mentioned by some
  teachers

12
GIS functionalities that correspond the teachers
educational needs

• The eight GIS functionalities which at best
  correspond the needs of the teachers in the
  educational use of GIS software
• creating thematic maps
• examining the attribute data of the map objects
• combining and visualizing different map layers
  and themes
• creating overlays with different map layers or
  themes
• joining self-created data or data from other
  sources to the available attribute data tables
• studying a map in different scales
• making queries according to the attributes of the
  map objects
• printing maps on paper

13
GIS data types that correspond the teachers
educational needs

• The four GIS data types which at best correspond
  the needs of the teachers in the educational use
  of GIS software
• data from the municipality
• data from all around the world
• national data
• data from the school surroundings

14
The advantages and problems in using GIS in
education
15
Questions and contact

• I am pleased to answer to any of your questions
  now or later
• M.Sc. Tino Johansson
• Department of Geography
• P.O. Box 64 (Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2)
• FI-00014 University of Helsinki
• Finland
• Tel. [phone]
• Fax. [phone]
• e-mail. tino.johansson_at_helsinki.fi
• GISAS book http//ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/m
  at/maant/sarjat/julkaisuja/a/141/