A Study Of Influencing Factors And The Ability Of High School Students’ Geospatial Thinking

In recent years,the educational value of geospatial thinking ability has become more and more prominent.As the key topic of interest in the field of geography education,related research has received extensive attention from academics.However,we found,after an overview of the existing research,that the studies refer to the influencing factors and mechanisms of geospatial thinking did not present the distinct and evident answers.The study aims to investigate the current ability of high school students’ geospatial thinking in Nanchang which builds a multi-layer linear model based on the survey data,analyzes the influencing factors and their interactions that lead to differences in students’ ability,and proposes a targeted solutions for the development of geospatial thinking ability of high school students.Eventually,Proactive teaching suggestions and case studies.The study consists of three parts:Firstly,the core concepts of geographic thinking,spatial thinking,and geospatial thinking were redefined through the literature analysis method.At the same time,the literature was combed to uncover the factors influencing geospatial thinking and to formulate hypotheses.Secondly,938 students and 30 teachers in 30 classes in Nanchang were used as the research objects.The collected data collected by questionnaire method were analyzed by ANOVA,correlation analysis,stepwise regression and Hierarchical-Liner-Modeling using two major software,SPSS26.0 and HLM6.08.The results of running the HLM showed that there were significant class differences in the level of students’ geospatial thinking.And the six variables of individual academic achievement in geography,practical experience in geography,high-level thinking and teachers’ working years,teaching beliefs,and work commitment all had positive and significant predictive effects on students’ level of geospatial thinking.In addition,the two interaction terms of teachers’ years of work and students’ geography academic achievement and teachers’ work commitment and students’ geography practice experience also had positive effects on students’ level of geospatial thinking.Finally,based on the empirical study,teaching suggestions and case studies were made to address the significant influencing factors.The section "Atmospheric Thermal Circulation" was used as an example to construct high-level thinking processes as a path to improve students’ geospatial thinking level.Taking the section "Variation of Day-Night Length and Midday Solar Altitude" as an example,it explored how to use geography practical activities to promote students’ geospatial thinking by designing simple teaching aids and making real-world observations.The study attempts to break through the traditional single-level linear regression analysis which innovatively considers the interaction between different levels of influencing factors.By constructing a multi-level linear model between individual and teacher-level influencing factors of students’ geospatial thinking ability,it explores the significance of different factors affecting geospatial thinking level and whether there are interactions between different levels of influencing factors.On this basis,it provides a practical reference for suggesting ways to improve the geospatial thinking of high school students.