The Study Of Middle School Students’ Geospatial Ability And Cultivating

Geospatial ability is an important element of geographical academic abilities. The level of geospatial ability is an important factor which can influence geographical studying and problem-solving efficiency. But considering the current situation, Geo-spatial ability education is not optimistic in the cases of the degree of teachers, attention and training quality. In a certain sense, low geospatial ability of students is one of the main causes which lead to the difficulties of geography learning. Therefore, the systemic studying and exploring on geospatial ability has important theoretical and practical value of the research topic in geographical teaching and research area.On the basis of the literature discussion, paper analyzes and summaries the meaning, components, classification of geospatial ability from the view of theory, through the first-hand survey data, the paper analyzes the current status of high school geospatial ability culture and the level status of high school students’geospatial ability, the teachers’and students’understanding of factors that affect geospatial ability and the value of geospatial ability. The paper also analyzes the spatial characteristics of the questions set in high school geography textbooks which include four editions of PEP, Hunan Education Edition, Shandong Education Edition, assessing the status of geospatial ability was incorporated in geography material from one side, presenting several important strategies of system use which support geospatial ability teaching.The whole paper includes three components, the introduction, the main text and the conclusion. The main text is composed by review, theoretical research and practical research, following the technical line from theory to practice.The Introduction analyzes the research background of this paper from the importance of geospatial ability, the status of current middle school geospatial education and research situation in domestic and foreign country home and abroad, clearing the theoretical and practical significance of this study based on this, proposing research questions and objectives, and pointing out the technical line and techniques.Firstly, the main text reviews and comments research and development status of geospatial ability, and the discussion focused on the elements of geospatial ability, the levels of geospatial abilities on different stages, gender differences in the geospatial ability, the measurement of geospatial ability level, the relationship between geospatial ability and geography achievement and the geographical problem-solving, setting the starting point of this paper. In theoretical research level, starting from geospatial ability content and characteristics, the paper definite the concept of geospatial ability and makes the classification. Then this part interprets the requirements of Chinese and American geography curriculum standards related to geospatial ability, constructing geospatial ability teaching methods on this basis.On the level in the empirical study, on the one hand, this study statistically analyzes the culture status and the level of high school students’geospatial ability. The study found that geography teachers do not concern geospatial ability in the teaching, and teachers with different backgrounds pay different attentions on geospatial ability in their teaching. Students do not concern the development of geospatial ability, and students with different backgrounds pay different attentions on geospatial ability in their studying. Teachers and students all think that the culture of geospatial ability is affected by several factors, and they have high degree of value of geospatial ability, but teachers and students of different backgrounds have different levels of perception on influential factors and value of geospatial ability. The study also found that high school students’geospatial ability is affected by gender, the school location, grade and other factors, the geospatial ability of high school boys is better than girls, and the measurement of geospatial ability of high school students in developed areas is significantly higher than the ones in underdeveloped areas, and junior students is better than junior students, geospatial ability is positively related to geography academic achievement. On the other hand, the paper also analyzes the spatial characteristics of the questions set in high school geography textbooks which include four editions of PEP, and the study finds that most of the questions in geographical material have nothing to do with the geospatial ability, geography textbook is not well integrated into the culture of geospatial ability and have unbalanced emphasis on different types of geospatial ability, particularly ignore question design of the psychological operations capabilities and geospatial imagination.The last part of the main text presents the use strategy of support systems for geospatial ability. This part analyzes the multimedia, geographic information systems and mental map which are three important support systems for geospatial ability, the role methods of operation, implementation strategy in cultivating geospatial ability.The last part is conclusions and outlook. This part draws conclusion of this paper through the studies of geospatial capability theory and teaching methods, the status of geospatial ability cultivation and Influence factors, the measurement level of geospatial ability, the spatial characteristics of the questions set in high school geography textbooks, the use strategy of support systems for geospatial ability etc. In addition, this part makes outlook of releted research issues, and points out limitations of this study.