Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Table 1. Differences in estimation of questions’ difficulty amongst different grades82Type of questions \ Grade A B C DTasks that are testing the geographical facts -0.36 -0.14 -0.01 -0.22Tasks that are demanding the analysis of situation 0.41 0.04 0.14 -0.22Tasks that are demanding the generalization 0.39 0.18 -0.22 -0.33Map questions -0.04 0.00 -0.12 0.57Identifying the pictures -0.37 -0.10 0.20 0.20Ratings’ average for a given grade: 2.90 3.05 3.33 3.01Regarding the fieldwork, the students had to indicate which exercise was the easiestand which one was the most difficult. Practically all exercises were mentioned, the determinationof bearings was most numerous amongst the “easy” tasks and compilation oflandscape profile amongst the most difficult tasks. We were also interested in participants’opinions on the proportion of events in final. To obtain more reliable quantitative estimateswe used Saaty’s method of Analytical Hierarchy Process by means of Idrisi softwaretools (Eastman, 2003). In total, 28% of respondents showed consistent assessments andthe figures presented in “Desirable” section of Table 2 were based on these answers only.The real structure is shown according to an average sum of points.Almost all (95%) students were using computers at home, 84% of these computerswere connected to Internet. Therefore we might presume that their computer literacyis relatively high. However, the questions about computer use show that their knowledgeis narrow, especially from the point of view of geographical applications.Although 83% of students have used the Internet to find geographical illustrations(and 72% to find any map), only 16% of them were doing it continuously. Severalinteresting and useful native (Estonian) electronic textbooks and web sites offeringinteractive computer maps were used only by one quarter of the students. It is probablethat students are not sufficiently informed about such possibilities. Also, a serious factfor organizers to consider is that students were in surprisingly undivided opinion thatcomputer-based exercises in the written test were a rather undesirable experience.Table 2. Events’ structure (per cent) of final competitionDesirableDesirableRealGrade Written test Fieldwork Orienteering QuizGymnasium 47.4 34.4 9.3 9.19 th Form 51.6 32.4 6.4 9.48 th Form 45.9 33.7 9.3 11.17 th Form 42.8 31.2 10.0 16.0Average 47.0 33.0 9.0 11.0min 15.0 4.0 3.0 4.0max 69.0 63.0 39.0 28.0Gymnasium 57.0 33.0 – 10.09 th Form 60.0 29.0 – 11.08 th Form 65.0 25.0 – 10.07 th Form 64.0 26.0 – 11.0