Abstract:

This presentation is relevant to the theme of re-imagining education for the 21st century to study the process of integrating GIS technology in the teacher preparation curriculum. The report from the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) emphasizes the importance of developing spatial skills through the teaching and learning of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). GIS is a type of Information Communications Technology (ICT) and its applications has been widely used in several government and private organizations; however, its emergence in a school or a classroom environment is still growing. The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), in the U.S. and around the world, provides information on educational training, software products, and technical support through their educational licensing programs. The significance of developing spatial skills and preparing students for jobs in the 21st century has prompted several school districts and states to obtain the free web-based accounts to access ArcGIS Online (AGO) software and adopt GIS in their curriculum. This paper addresses the current status of GIS in teacher preparation, and exemplifies how GIS skills are developed in the context of learning about issues related to decision making on the location of a new recycling center. The use of GIS skills illustrate the potential enhancement for critical thinking and problem-solving skills when compared to the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy when preservice teachers design their own projects. Science concepts in physics, chemistry, biology and environmental science, in the curriculum have few opportunities to function in an integrated manner. In the context of the real world situations, teachers of science have a unique opportunity to use GIS software to layer data from a variety of content areas, visualize a problem from different angles, analyze and make informed choices regarding the solutions especially when examining environmental issues. An advanced science methods course designed to accommodate six sessions introduced preservice teachers to the basic elements of GIS with a sample of its applications using ArcGIS Online to learn to navigate and use the GIS software through a series of exercises. This experience demonstrates that the inquiry process using real world data in the GIS environment enhanced, critical thinking and problem solving skills potentially develop in the context of science, technology and society issues. The transfer of GIS knowledge into practice most often occurs, when preservice teachers learn and use the knowledge and skills in a spatial environment that enhances these connections. Research for the 21st century need to grow in the areas of:

1) integrating GIS technology in the teacher preparation curriculum
2) developing critical thinking and problem solving skills in a GIS environment
3) developing spatial thinking using GIS technology in the school curriculum as it has the capability of integrating data from science and other disciplines in a spatial form.

Keywords:

ArcGIS Online, Science Methods Course, Preservice Teachers, Spatial Thinking, Critical and Problem solving.