Reviewing Spatial Thinking in Geography Textbooks Questions from The Perspective of Spatial Thinking
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As a science and a subject in school, geography is considered as having a major role to play in fostering spatial thinking. In the context of preparing for an educational reform transferring from content-based to competency-based approach in Vietnam now, spatial thinking is identified as one of the prominent competencies that geography can promote. However, there has been no research on spatial thinking in the country so far. Therefore, this paper aims at reviewing spatial thinking in geography textbooks from grade 6 to grade 9 in Vietnam for the reason that geography is taught as a separate and compulsory subject in secondary and high school. We adapt the Taxonomy of Spatial Thinking proposed by Jo and Bednarz (2009) and then simplified by Scholz et al. (2014) to evaluate spatial thinking in three aspects: the concepts of spatial, tools of representation and processes of reasoning in questions in textbooks. The findings show that the majority of questions in textbooks are non-spatial thinking. The research gives suggestions for textbook authors in Vietnam to take three dimensions of spatial thinking into account in the future geography curriculum reform. Besides, it recommends teachers to consider to foster not only spatial thinking but also effective questioning in their teaching.
CitationNguyen, N. A., Muñiz-Solari, O., Dang, D. T., & Nguyen, T. P. (2019). Reviewing Spatial Thinking in Geography Textbooks Questions from The Perspective of Spatial Thinking. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 338, 012042.
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