The effects of teaching geographical thinking skills supported by the geographical information systems on the geographical thinking skills, academic achievement and retention of the students

The general purpose of this experimental study is to determine the effects of teaching geographical thinking skills supported by the geographical information systems on geographical thinking skills, academic achievement and retention of the students.The study groups consist of 55 10th grade students who are determined by random selection from two classes at ATO Anadolu Lisesi and ÇEAŞ Anadolu Lisesi, in Adana, in central province of Seyhan and Sarıçam. The classes are determined by random selection and one of them is designated as experimental and the other as control group. The teaching of geographical thinking skills was supported by geographical information systems in the experimental group, and was based on the current curriculum in the control group. The data of the research are gathered via ?Geographical Achievement Test? and ?Geographical Thinking Skills Scale?. Geographical achievement test consists of 36 questions and Geographical Thinking Skills Scale has 42 items.For the analysis of data, ANOVA test was applied for the complex measurements of Geographical Achievement pre-test, post-test and retention test scores and Geographical Thinking Skills Scale scores of the students. The findings of the research indicated that there is significant difference between the geographical thinking skills, academic achievement and the level of retention scores of the experimental and the control group in favor of the experimental group. Consequently, it is observed that teaching Geographical Thinking Skills supported by GIS is more effective comparing to the method of the current curriculum according to the students? total score of Geographical Thinking Skills and academic achievement but not effective according to the students? total score of retention test.