Abstract:

Spatial literacy is considered as a valuable skill, both in the science field and everyday life. According to the National Research Council (NRC) (2006), without due attention to students’ spatial literacy, no education can meet its responsibility for preparing next-generation learners both for their future work and career demands and personal life in the 21st century. NRC (2006: 6), maintains that basic and essential special literacy skills can be learned and acquired and can, thus, be formally taught to students with the use of appropriate technology, appropriately designed tools and respective curricula. One of the fundamental elements of spatial literacy is Spatial Habits of Mind (SHOM) as defined by the conformation and composition of the following five subdimensions: pattern recognition, spatial description, visualization, spatial concept use and spatial tool use (Kim & Bednarz, 2013).

A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for gathering, managing, and analyzing spatial data in digital environments (National Society, 2020). Valid multiple research has supported the relation of GIS with spatial literacy enhancement, holding the view that GIS can aid students towards developing spatial abilities (Albert & Golledge, 1999; Self et al., 1992), solving spatial problems (Baker, 2000; Kerski, 2000) and significantly improving Spatial Habits of Mind (Kim & Bednarz, 2013).

For the purpose of the current research, a learning environment was created which incorporated the PBL learning model, based on WebGIS technology (ArcGIS Online). In this framework, 2 projects were designed and implemented. Project 1 combine and incorporate fieldwork with GIS and it pertains to local community problems and Project 2 was conducted indoors, in the computer lab only with web-based data.

With the view to investigating the impact of such a learning environment on students SHOM, a quasi-experimental research on 58 high school students was conducted. Two work teams were created, one for the realization of Project 1 and the second for Project 2. The assessment of SHOM variable was done via the Spatial Habit Of Mind Inventory (SHOMI) which evaluates the five SHOM subdimensions and has been developed by Kim & Bednarz (2013). Pre and post-tests were conducted at the beginning and end of the school semester. T-tests were used to determine if there is a significant difference between the means of the two groups.

The study found significant improvement in students’ Spatial Habits of Mind. There is no obvious differentiation between genders while educational benefits are further boosted and enhanced when fieldwork is applied in order to address local community issues.

Keywords:

WebGIS, ArcGIS Online, Spatial Literacy, GIS-Based Projects.