Real-world geographers and geography students using GIS: relevance, everyday applications and the development of geographical knowledge

Abstract

While Geographical information systems (GIS) are increasingly being seen in school geography classrooms, there remains significant reluctance among teachers to engage with the technology (e.g. Hong, 2017), as well as limited consideration of students’ perspectives on GIS. In response to this, we have undertaken research to explore how a programme of GIS training, integrated within a two-year A-Level examination course, develops students’ perceptions of the value and nature of GIS, their subsequent engagement with it, and its impact on their geographical knowledge. This paper reports on one strand of the longitudinal research which focuses on how tapping into the expertise of real-world, industry experts can affect students’ perceptions of the relevance of GIS to geography and support their acquisition of geographical knowledge. The project, an interpretive case study, used questionnaires, interviews and analysis of students’ work to elicit students’ developing perceptions of and engagement with GIS, as well as changes in their geographical knowledge. Results suggest that engagement with industry experts aids students’ understanding of what GIS is, allowing them to develop a more nuanced appreciation of its real-world applications; this then appears to play both a direct and indirect role in the subsequent development of students’ geographical knowledge.

Keywords:

• Geographical information systems (GIS)
• WebGIS
• geography education
• geographical knowledge
• industry experts
• student perceptions

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Note

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the ‘real-world GIS experts’ for working with the students across this project, in particular Dr Katie Hall and Daran Scarlett from ESRI UK and the GeoMentor, a Lance Corporal from the 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic) of the Royal Engineers. We would also like to thank the geography students for the enthusiasm with which they responded to the research across the academic year. Finally, we are particularly grateful for the constructive comments that the anonymous reviewers provided on an earlier draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) is an international supplier of geographic information system (GIS) software, WebGIS and geodatabase management applications, and the owner of ArcGIS Online.