High School Students' Evaluations on the Reflections of Geographical Information on Daily Life

Abstract

Geography is a critical tool for understanding the physical, social, economic, and political characteristics of places around the world and is important for grasping the various factors that shape people's lives and decisions. Knowledge of geography directly or indirectly affects people's daily lives by determining the characteristics of settlements, natural resources, climatic conditions, economic activities, natural disasters, or cultures and societies around the world. This research was carried out with 10th grade students who tried to gain geographical knowledge systematically through a geography course. The aim of the research is to reveal how the students' geography knowledge is reflected in their daily lives. A semi-structured interview form created by the researchers was used to collect data in the study that employed phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods. The obtained data were analyzed using the descriptive analysis approach, and results were gathered with regard to the students' level of interest in the geography course, the factors affecting this level of interest, the definition of geography knowledge and the future contribution of geographic knowledge, and the use of this knowledge in daily life. The main conclusion of the study is that one-third of students don’t use geography in their daily lives. In light of this circumstance, it could be advised to design geography topics based on activities, using real-world examples in a practical way.