A review of geospatial thinking assessment in high schools

Abstract

The types of assessments found in geography teaching materials generally focus on declarative knowledge, include few geographic practices, are primarily multiple-choice format, and use a map/globe as the type of representation or none at all. With this context in mind, results are presented from an online survey of geospatial thinking assessment practices of educators involved in high school geography education from around the globe. The findings lead to a discussion of the assessment practices teachers use to measure high school students' performance in geospatial thinking, the concepts they most often assess and the challenges they encounter in undertaking such assessments. The chapter concludes by recommending the development of new online tools for geospatial thinking assessment, and urging teachers to put into practice the ideas and instruments being proposed in the emerging literature on the assessment of geospatial thinking.