Geographic literacy in Spain with mental maps

Abstract

There is growing interest in assessing the knowledge acquired by students. More often and in diverse disciplines it is necessary to know the level of the students through different types of testing. In the case of teaching of geography in Spain, there is a decrease and loss of such learning for various reasons. The aim of this research is to analyze the literacy in geography of university students in the Grado en Maestro de Educación Primaria (Degree in Elementary Education Teaching) for its possible multiplier effect, since they will be the ones who teach geography to future generations. In order to achieve this, our data source is based on a sample of 629 mental maps from students from four Spanish universities located in different autonomous communities in Spain. The knowledge of the assessed administrative unit was taken into value, but also its location and representation, showing the importance of the where in geography. Results show the inconsistent knowledge of the future teachers depending on the place of residence and which level of the structure of the country they are asked about. In turn, these results reinforce the usefulness of mental maps as an optimal method to assess geographic knowledge.