The Return of the Native? Questions About Geographical Knowledge and Spatial Thinking

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorMilson, Andrew J.
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-05T21:12:16Z
dc.date.available2023-12-05T21:12:16Z
dc.date.issued2007
dc.description.abstractThe labor of Philip and Carol Gersmehl (2006) toward the development of a taxonomy of spatial thinking skills is commendable. Geography education serves to gain from the effort to apply innovative research, such as the latest in neuroscience, to the development of curriculum, instruction, and assessment in the field. As the Gersmehls point out, the assessment component of geography education has been weak. It is an unfortunate truth of schooling in America today that high-stakes standardized assessments have served to marginalize important subjects and experiences in K-12 schools. Educators in the social sciences, humanities, and fine arts have all found themselves arguing for the value of their disciplines. One of the commonalities of these disciplines is that their most cherished outcomes are often difficult to measure in a standardized assessment format. If the standing of geography is to improve in American schools, then attention to the presence of geography on standardized assessments is crucial. More important than mere presence on the exams, however, is the nature of the geographic knowledge that is tested. One rule of standardized assessment appears to be that that which is measurable will trump that which is meaningful. While it is true that measurability and meaningfulness are not mutually exclusive, geography educators nevertheless must take care to maintain the focus on meaningful learning outcomes in the struggle to increase the prominence of the discipline in K-12 schools. It is in the spirit of collegial academic discourse and a desire to ensure meaningfulness in geography education that I offer a few questions about the list of spatial thinking skills presented by the Gersmehls in Research in Geographic Education.
dc.description.departmentGeography and Environmental Studies
dc.formatText
dc.format.extent5 pages
dc.format.medium1 file (.pdf)
dc.identifier.citationMilson, A.J. (2007). The return of the native? Questions about geographical knowledge and spatial thinking. Research in Geographic Education, 9(2), pp. 18-22.
dc.identifier.issn1529-0085
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10877/17405
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherThe Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education
dc.sourceResearch in Geographic Education, 2007, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 18-22.
dc.subjectgeography
dc.subjectgeography education
dc.subjectspatial thinking
dc.titleThe Return of the Native? Questions About Geographical Knowledge and Spatial Thinking
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
GC_RGE_2007_V9_2_02Milson.pdf
Size:
205.07 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Research in Geographic Education