The effect of using three approaches for teaching 12- and 13-year-old students the geography of East Asia

The purposes of the study were (1) to compare the sixth and seventh grade students' knowledge of geography of East Asia before and after they study the unit of East Asia in social studies classrooms, and (2) to compare students' achievement in the studying of world geography unit when the content was taught in one of three approaches: through physical geography, through human geography, and through the interaction of environment and society. As the method of instruction for teaching the unit of East Asia, peer mediated instruction and intervention (or guided discovery) was used.; In order to assess whether the approach to learning about the geography of East Asia gives students a better understanding of the geography of the region, students, in spite of being taught using different approaches in their respective treatment groups, were to respond to the same questions on pro- and post-test questionnaires.; The instrument for this study was developed on the basis of world geography textbooks (Sager & Helgren, 1998; Boehm, 1995) and contained fifteen multiple choice items: five items representing each of three approaches utilized for the treatment groups. Test items were randomly mixed. Significant differences were found in background knowledge of geography of East Asia in favor of students assigned to the environment and society group (t-value = 2.40, t-critical = 2.00, p = .02), between the pre- and post-test scores of students in the environment and society group in favor for the pre-test scores (t-value = 2.52, t-critical = 2.00, p = .01), and between the pre- and post-test scores for total scale in favor for the pre-test scores (t-value = 3.01, t-critical = 1.97, p = .003). The investigator discussed the experimental part of the study with the teacher participants.; The conclusion for the study states that: (1) neither one among three approaches (physical geography, human geography, and environment and society) for teaching the world geography unit appear to have significantly affected students' learning of the world geography content; (2) for effective learning geographic information specific to a world region and making connections among geographic issues, the method for instruction in a world geography course should be a combination of direct instruction (lecture and drill) and peer mediated instruction and intervention (guided discovery).; It is recommended that further research be conducted in order to assess: (1) whether site location (rural and suburban), grade level, and gender influence students' achievement in world geography; and (2) whether the choice of a method for instruction a world geography course influences students' achievement.