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Geographic education and student's performance on geographic literacy tests : the case of high...

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Geographic education and student's performance on geographic literacy tests : the case of high school students in Central and Eastern Connecticut / Kristie S. Blanchard

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Identifier	Thesis 1781
Author	Blanchard, Kristie S., 1970-
Title	Geographic education and student's performance on geographic literacy tests : the case of high school students in Central and Eastern Connecticut / Kristie S. Blanchard
Publisher	Central Connecticut State University
Date of Publication	2005
Resource Type	Master's Thesis
Abstract	Geographic illiteracy is a prevalent phenomenon in American culture today. Students in American high schools lack basic geographic skills, concepts and knowledge that would aid their entrance into today's society. This lack of knowledge has been demonstrated repeatedly on geography tests and surveys conducted in the last few decades, including the National Geographic Roper Survey given in 2002, in which Americans placed eighth out of nine nations tested. There are many reasons for geographic illiteracy in the United States, including lack of teacher training, poor funding for the subject in schools, and little respect for the discipline. The No Child Left Behind Act, proposed by President Bush in 2001, attempted to address this issue by making geography one of the required eight core school subjects. In spite of this, requirements for teachers and students have not changed, funding has not been established, and standardized geography tests have not been introduced at the high school level. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the geographic literacy of students at several high schools in central and eastern Connecticut by comparing schools where geography was a graduation requirement, an elective course, or the subject was not offered at all. The thesis also sought to analyze the link between teacher training in geography, and student performance on standardized geography tests. Lastly, student retention of geographic information over a period of years was examined. A standardized geography test produced by the National Council for Geographic Education was administered to students in 10 high schools in central and eastern Connecticut. The test had three sections that assessed students' knowledge in human geography, physical geography, and map skills. Data was also collected on the geographic education of the teachers at each of the schools in order to compare the students' performance with the teachers' education. The data collected from the schools confirms that geographic illiteracy is commonplace in Connecticut. Seven of the ten schools produced a failing grade (less than 60%) on the test. The research also indicated that schools that require geography for high school graduation perform higher on standardized geography tests than those that do not. Teacher training in geography was important as well. Schools that had teachers who majored in geography had a higher rate of success than their counterparts. The results also suggest that geographic knowledge must be extended over a number of years in order to aid retention. Additional testing is necessary to ascertain the pervasiveness of geographic illiteracy in Connecticut. Further study could also be conducted to ascertain the effects of geographic education and training on student performance in Connecticut.
Subject	Geography -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Connecticut
Department	Department of Geography
Advisor	Kyem, Peter A.
Type	Text
Digital Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
OCLC number	61659650
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Geographic education and student's performance on geographic literacy tests : the case of high school students in Central and Eastern Connecticut / Kristie S. Blanchard

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