he use of GIS in teaching Geography. A didactic intervention with trainee teachers

Abstract

Nowadays, there are new challenges and new ways of accessing knowledge and communicating through one of the oldest disciplines, Geography. The study of Geography education through Project Based Learning (PBL) is proving to be very effective in the educational field. This study presents the results of a PBL designed to introduce Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the learning of geographic competences, in this case the elaboration and understanding of maps, as well as the study of climate and the elaboration of climograms. We have worked with a sample of 226 students from a Primary Education Degree, to whom the PBL teaching intervention was applied, using GIS for skill development. Subsequently, an ad hoc questionnaire was applied, with quantitative and qualitative questions, to measure the effects of the intervention on learning to use maps and the study of climate. The methodology of analysis was mixed. The results show that more than 70% of the students have acquired knowledge of using GIS for map interpretation and understanding the climate through climograms. It is concluded that the experience through GIS improves the learning process and the understanding of the territory.