A Study on Map Skills of Junior High School Students Based on The Basic Competence Test
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chang, Wei-Ting
Abstract
Map is an important language of geography. The developing of map reading and map using skills is essential to K-12 curriculum. In particular, the education of map skills in junior high school level is crucial since students'' capability for symbolic and abstract thinking is getting completed at this age. This study uses the material of the Basic Competence Test for analysis. Five thousand sample answer sheets are randomly drawn for the years 2006-2010. The research methods of this study include experts review, statistical analysis, and in-depth interviews and so on to explore the map ability of junior high school students. The results of the analysis show that questions relevant to map skills compose a major part of the exam questions. In particular, questions regarding locational ability take up more than 50% of the all map related questions. Both the passing rate and the differentiation rate of map questions are higher than non-map questions. Regarding gender difference, based on the overall data of 5 years, male students perform better than female students in the dimensions of locational and measurement skill. However, such difference is becoming less significant in the last two years. When comparing the performance differences across the 6 test districts, students in Taipei and Keelung area perform the best, and the gender difference within this region is not significant. This research also finds that different dimensions of map skills are closely interrelated. Overall speaking, students perform the poorest in questions related to spatial thinking. This result indicates that students may lack the ability to convert text description into spatial imagination. Teachers should put more efforts on enhancing students’ ability in this dimension in their instruction.
Subjects
Map skill
Map education
The Basic CompetenceTest
Type
thesis
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