Abstract
Thinking Through Geography (TTG) strategies are popular in secondary education. Geography teachers see these strategies to be powerful to stimulate thinking geographically. However, empirical evidence is scarce. Based on a quasi-experimental design, effects of mysteries, one of the more famous TTG strategies, were examined on students’ geographical thinking in terms of their skills to relate phenomena. A multilevel regression analysis showed that students who used mysteries in geography lessons reported significantly more correct geographical relationships than students who attended the regular curriculum. We conclude that a mystery can be an effective TTG strategy for the development of students’ geographical thinking skills. Improvements of the pedagogy of using mysteries in Geography lessons are discussed.