Spatial cognition and map-reading skills of students studying social studies education and pre-school education

This study is a case study which aims to investigate what students in the study group know about the geographical space that they live in and the ways they show their knowledge related to it. The Participants of the study are 131 first-year and fourth-year students in total studying Social Studies Education and Pre-School Education at Adnan Menderes University. The spatial cognition and map-reading skills of the participant students were identified and compared according to their study programs, year of study, gender, geographical spaces they live in, high-school programs they studied, high-school types they graduated from and time of studying geography. As the geographical space, a cross section from the air photograph of Aydın province was taken and all participants were asked to show some of the places with special positions on the map. The `Spatial Cognition Form?, developed by the researcher, was used for collecting the data. As for the analysis of the quantitative data, frequency analyses, percentages, mean averages, standard deviations, t-test, and ANOVA test were employed.The findings of the study showed that the spatial cognition and map-reading skills of students studying Social Studies Education were significantly different from the ones studying Pre-School Education. The findings were explained and discussed considering the difference along with certain variables. The findings of the study revealed that teaching geography at Pre-School Education programs would support developing the skills measured in this study.