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For a few decades, map skills stay at the forefront of not only geographers' and geographic educators' research interest. To identify what has already been accomplished, where the research currently stands and where the potential for future studies lies, a review of the literature was carried out. Specifically, this comprehensive synthesis of map skill research focuses on three perspectives: terminology, methodological approaches, and mainly on investigated factors affecting the map skill level. As non-uniformity in terminology is apparent, an integrative framework of map skill types based on theoretical works and previous studies is proposed. Similarly, methods that can be more suitable and beneficial for future research than now prevailing non-standardized test are presented. These suggestions are mainly based on a variety of identified scarcely used methodological approaches. Furthermore, the synthesis shows that the number of factors which influence on the level of map skills has been tested is substantial. But that, frequently investigated categories of factors are identifiable. In addition, current gaps in map skill research are identified and insufficiently studied, yet potentially important factors are suggested for future studies.

GeoCapabilities is a distinctive approach to teacher professional development which foregrounds the educational potential of geographical knowledge. This paper examines the effect of GeoCapabilities on geography teachers' expertise. First, the paper explores a problem of teacher training which privileges technique for classroom effectiveness over geographical thinking. We then introduce the GeoCapabilities 3 project, presenting and discussing findings through teachers' reflections. We argue that GeoCapabilities 3 offers a model of teacher development, which supports teachers as leaders of curriculum change in an 'activist profession'. This is needed if geography education is to equip young people with knowledge capabilities for their future.

During the 2015 sudden rise in migration movements in Europe, approximately 2.4 million refugees arrived in Europe and 1.2 million asylum applications were received in the European Union countries. We were interested in finding out whether these rapid changes and the polarised attitudes represented in the media affected young people's attitudes towards people with different cultural backgrounds. This study, therefore, examined young people's global understanding in four European countries: Czechia, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. The aim was to identify the level of world-mindedness of young people and compare the results with an earlier study (conducted in 2010) with the same research design. The research was targeted at a group of upper-secondary students in these countries. In total, 962 students participated in the study in 2017. Although the context in the observed countries varied, the findings revealed a stable state, or rather a slightly positive change of world-mindedness, to 2010 in all the countries. The results stress the need to remain sensitive to students' opinions and attitudes towards other people and cultures in geography lessons in general and especially when teaching and learning about current societal issues, inequality, exclusion and solidarity.

When spatial information is depicted on univariate or multivariate maps, different visualization designs should be considered to fit the designs to suit the target audience and define the map's general purpose and therefore also the map user's expected cognitive processes. Although multivariate maps have attracted research for decades, only several studies have compared the effectiveness of maps that use extrinsic and intrinsic encoding styles, and even fewer have tried to incorporate other map-related factors that could significantly affect the user's performance and clarify the relationship between the selected encoding style's efficiency and the user's cognitive processes. In this paper, we report on an empirical replication study focused on the performance differences of experienced map users solving a task using a map and the possible effect of their cognitive styles on the efficiency of bivariate map encoding styles and the map task type. For the experiment, we recruited 77 spatial planning and geography university students in China considered as experienced map users. The study indicated that extrinsic visualizations outperformed intrinsic visualizations in the main observed variables of correctness and response time but not always significantly. A detailed analysis of the tasks, which involved the use of either one variable or two variables concurrently, confirmed our hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial thinking is a crucial aspect of geography education with which all citizens should be equipped. This study employs eye-tracking technology to research strategies (their repertoire, distribution, effectiveness, and adaptiveness) used by upper-secondary students when analyzing spatial patterns with thematic maps. The results show that students have a broad repertoire of strategies and are mostly able to adapt them to the specific task demands. Moreover, the efficiency of students' strategies gradually increases as they get familiar with the task type and the maps analyzed. Based on the findings, how to appropriately develop students' strategies in geography lessons is suggested.

Developing young people’s understanding of geography concepts requires teachers who have detailed, structured, interconnected, and accurate conceptual knowledge and understanding. Accordingly, this study focuses on pre-service geography teachers’ understanding of the exemplar concept of contours on maps and discusses its implications for teacher training programmes. Data collected using a two-tier conceptual test and a questionnaire in a sample of 127 pre-service geography teachers indicated that pre-service teachers should not be perceived as a homogenous group with identical conceptual understandings and educational needs. The results highlighted the necessity to differentiate between pre-service teachers not only based on their conceptual understanding but also on the non-cognitive dimensions of concepts. Four types of pre-service teachers were identified based on success and certainty rates: successful-certain (SC), successful-uncertain (SU), failing-uncertain (FU) and failing-certain (FC). Both SU and FU types were characterised by low confidence in their related skills and a negative relationship to the concept of contours. The non-cognitive dimension manifested in opposite ways in SC and FC types. The specific educational approach required by each type is discussed, and implications for further research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maps are an increasingly used source of information and it is therefore essential to develop map skills in students. A fundamental factor affecting the choice of map skills and the way they are developed is the teacher and his/her concept of map work. Based on the results of a survey and semi-structured interviews among Czech teachers, this study identifies three basic conceptual types of teachers: "Navigators" and "Problem-Oriented" and "Source-Oriented" teachers. Similarities with teachers' concepts of map-skill development identified in previous studies are discussed together with means of improvement.