期刊名称：Review of International Geographical Education Online
电子版ISSN：2146-0353
出版年度：2013
卷号：3
期号：2
出版社：Review of International Geographical Education Online
摘要：We started this study after noticing that university students make certain mistakes when elaborating column charts. The objectives of our research were to: 1) analyse the knowledge integrated into the competence of elaborating column charts; 2) analyse the procedure(s) to elaborate these charts; 3) analyse the mistakes that university students make in elaborating these charts; 4) analyse the causes leading to their mistakes; 5) identify ways to improvethe educational process and students' performance results. In order to achieve these objectives, we studied the activity for forming students' competence to elaborate column charts and we analysed 704 such charts realised by 410 students at the Faculty of Geography within the University of Bucharest, Romania, during the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 academic years. In this paper, we describe the competence to elaborate column charts and present an analytical assessment grid with a dichotomous scale according to the way of presentation proposed by Maria Eliza Dulam.. In the analysis, we assessed charts using this assessment grid that included 20 criteria. We conclude by proposing waysto better the activity that underlies the formation of elaborating column charts (e.g. discussing chart types with students, discussing mistakes and how to correct them, discussing causes of their mistakes and an assessment grid before elaborating charts, creating a check list, etc.).
关键词：Geography teaching in higher education; co mpetence; column chart;assessment criteria; ;indicator; assessment grid; var currentpos;timer; function initialize() { timer=setInterval("scrollwindow()";10);} function sc(){clearInterval(timer); }function scrollwindow() { currentpos=document.body.scrollTop; window.scroll(0;++currentpos); if (currentpos != document.body.scrollTop) sc();} document.onmousedown=scdocument.ondblclick=initializeOsaci-Costache; G.; Dulam.; M.E.; Ilovan; O.R. / Geography University Students' Competence…;164 ;Introduction ;Charts (also known as graphs or diagrams) are very important for "representing ;information" (Mazza; 2007) in general; not only for representing statistical or ;geographical data. In order to elaborate correct charts; it is important to transmit correct ;and complete information. Therefore; it is necessary that students acquire the competence ;to create charts starting with their first year university education. In the process of ;elaborating charts; geographers may make a lot of mistakes; either when analysing and ;reorganising data using tools from Statistics; Mathematics; and Informatics; or in the ;process of converting the respective data in easy to understand; strong visual impact ;charts and they run the risk of losing from the initial statistical information. ;We started this study after noticing that university students make certain mistakes in ;elaborating charts; some of these mistakes being more frequent than others. We noticed ;those mistakes in students' problem-solving tasks during practical work in Cartography; ;during presentations of scientific papers at symposia and conferences; and when ;presenting their graduation theses. At the Faculty of Geography in the University of ;Bucharest; Romania; we developed this competence across diverse courses; but ;especially in Cartography (during the first year; the second semester); where; in the ;syllabus of the course; we included two hours of lecture and four hours of practical ;work dedicated to statistical methods of representation. In the syllabus of the ;Cartography course; we included activities for elaborating diverse chart types and we ;realised these activities with students whom we provided quality auxiliary materials (a ;textbook for course activities and another one for our seminars). Despite this; each year; ;students' charts have certain mistakes. ;Because we are concerned about increasing the quality of the university educational ;process related to elaborating charts and developing students' competence to elaborate ;them at the highest possible level; we took into account several research objectives: ;1) to analyse the knowledge integrated into the competence of elaborating column ;charts; ;2) to analyse the procedure(s) to elaborate these charts; ;3) to analyse the mistakes that university students make in elaborating these charts; ;4) to analyse the causes leading to their mistakes; ;5) to identify ways to improve the educational process and students' performance ;results. ;In order to achieve the objectives of our research; we organised an activity to develop ;students' competence to elaborate diagrams in columns during the practical work in the ;Cartography course. We collected and analysed 704 column charts that students ;themselves created during this activity. Those charts reflected the level of competence ;that our students achieved. We focused on the qualitative results of our research – on the ;assessment grid we created and used; on students' mistakes and their causes – while ;quantitative results were second as importance. The qualitative results could be relevant ;for improving the educational process and students' achievement in other contexts too.
