Geography Literacy Profile of Pre-Service Teachers: The Case of Turkey

Abstract

The study aims to determine the “Geography Literacy” levels of senior year pre-service teachers. To do so, the correlations between geo-literacy on the one hand, and the program the student is enrolled in, the type of settlement the student lived in during secondary education, the type of high school the student graduated from, the student’s travel experience so far, and attitudes towards geography on the other, were assessed. The study was carried out with 4th year pre-service teachers (n=427) enrolled in six programs in the faculty of education, during the fall semester of academic year 2018-2019. The “Geography Literacy Test” developed by Gençtürk (2009) was used as the data collection tool. The data gathered were analyzed through descriptive, independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, chi-square, and Pearson correlation techniques. The study revealed that the geo-literacy levels of pre-service teachers were inadequate. Moreover, the geography literacy levels were found to exhibit significant variance with reference to gender, attitudes, the type of high school, the program the student is enrolled in, and the type of settlement the student lived in during secondary education. The findings were then used as the basis of specific proposals for increasing geo-literacy levels and paving the way for future studies.