Geographic skills: a case study of students in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

The worldwide technology boom has created an information revolution. Consequently, a large number of people who previously had limited access to geographic data can now use Internet-based geographic information for a number of diverse purposes. The average person has access to geographic information for tourism, shopping, business, and even route planning. Though access is a boon for users, a solid grasp of geographic principles is critical if the information is to play a meaningful role in expectations and results. This study investigated the geographic skills that secondary-school students and university geography students in the United Arab Emirates have acquired during their course of study. It considered the first-year university students (freshmen) as representatives of secondary-school graduates, and college seniors as college graduates. The study also considered gender: it examined how men's and women's skills differ in terms of map reading, map design, understanding directions, and calculating distances. Results from the study pinpointed strengths and weaknesses in geography curricula and the need to revise the present system at both the secondary and university levels. Although the results show that geographic skills are generally weak among university students, they also showed that senior students’ performance was measurably better than the freshmen, and the male students perform better than the female students. This study concludes with recommendations to improve geographic skills for secondary and university students.

Keywords:

• geographic skills
• education level
• gender
• UAE

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Mrs Elizabeth Montgomery-Anderson of Cherokee Nation GeoData Center for her great efforts in editing this paper, and Mr Wala Mohamed for data processing, as well as Mrs Shaima Al Hammadi for sharing her master's thesis research.