Abstract:

Four lessons using Geographic Information System (GIS) on a geography topic of Urban Issues and Challenges were designed and piloted in two Junior Colleges in Singapore. At the end of the GIS lessons, 64 students from three classes from one Junior College completed a questionnaire to evaluate their GIS learning experience. The questionnaire survey included Likert-scale items for students to express the extent they agree that they are comfortable using GIS; that they find GIS effective; that they prefer using GIS compared to traditional way of learning, and that they find GIS useful. The opened-ended response items in the questionnaire required the students to write about the problems and challenges they faced when using GIS.

The results of the study showed that the students agreed that they were comfortable using GIS but did not agree that GIS is an effective method to improve their learning. In fact, GIS did not boost their motivation to learn Geography and they preferred the traditional method of learning to using GIS. However, the students recognized that GIS could help advance their learning through development of the skills such as investigating; analyzing of data patterns, linkages and trends; and problem solving. No significant differences were found in the mean score for the degree of usefulness of GIS by gender, race and ability. The students from the art stream had significantly higher mean score for the degree of usefulness of GIS compared to the science steam.

Keywords:

Geographic information system, geographical education, student evaluation.