An intervention study: teaching the comparison method to enhance secondary students’ comparison competency

Abstract

To tackle the growing challenges facing our societies, such as climate change, we need to understand scientific knowledge and methods. Developing scientific literacy in schools is therefore necessary. To do so, we need to be able to assess competencies associated with scientific literacy. Secondly, educators need meaningful tools which can be implemented in geography classes. One important competency students learn in geography is comparison. Although students perform comparisons in geography classes regularly, we do not know their level of comparison competency. Research is also needed on potential tools to teach the comparison method efficiently in geography classes. Therefore, in this study, we assessed the comparison competency of 83 French and German secondary students and tested a tool to enhance comparison competency in an intervention study using a pre- and post-test control group design. Results indicate that students initially possessed low levels of comparison competency. Our intervention allowed students from the experimental group to improve their comparison skills significantly. The improvement in their post-test scores was positively correlated with the use of the comparison method during the intervention. This shows that teachers should include explicit instructions on the comparison method to help students develop their scientific literacy.

Keywords:

• assessment in geography education
• comparison competency
• intervention study
• scientific literacy

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. Frank Schäbitz for his support, Michelle Wegener, and students and teachers who participated in the study for their collaboration.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 In Germany, all participants from the experimental group were enrolled in an advanced elective geography class: “Leistungskurs Geographie”. In France participants were enrolled in the history-geography, geopolitics and political sciences stream: “Spécialité Histoire-géographie, géopolitique, sciences politiques”.

2 Differences between the two countries will be explored in another article.

3 Link to the digital learning unit in German: https://www.ilias.uni-koeln.de/ilias/goto_uk_lm_4325913.html. In French: https://www.ilias.uni-koeln.de/ilias/goto_uk_lm_4391846.html. In English: https://www.ilias.uni-koeln.de/ilias/goto_uk_lm_4911773.html.

4 The CRC-806 “Our way to Europe” was funded in three phases from 2009 to 2021. In this interdisciplinary project, archaeologists, climate researchers, geoscientists, etc. explored factors, obstacles and possible routes for human dispersal from Africa to Europe. It involved our project which aimed to disseminate research results while doing educational research. More information can be found here: https://www.sfb806.uni-koeln.de/

5 The table and instructions for students can be found on the following pages of the digital learning unit: https://www.ilias.uni-koeln.de/ilias/ilias.php?ref_id=4325913&obj_id=350011&cmd=layout&cmdClass=illmpresentationgui&cmdNode=hb&baseClass=ilLMPresentationGUI

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)–Project Number 57444011–SFB806. The digital learning unit (OER) was funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, Federal Ministry of Education and Research) in the DiGeo project under the funding code 16DHB3003.