Teaching development grants final and financial report: Enhancing geographical literacy through an ICT-assisted inquiry-based approach

The project adopted an innovative curriculum design to enhance student’s learning of geographical literacy by using an information and communication technology-assisted spatial inquiry (ISI) approach. The project team designed two blended-learning modules at secondary-school level that employ GIS as a spatial analytical tool to investigate real-world geographical problems and issues. Each module contains 2 parts: Introduction of the tool and spatial analytical techniques, along with an inquiry-based learning activity. The module content and their pedagogical design are highly coherent to the current geography curriculum of senior secondary schools. Two groups of students took part in the project. Twelve senior year undergraduate students who studied DSE geography acted as student-instructordevelopers. They were trained to teach using the modules and reflect upon its usage with reference to the barriers of its adoption in a school setting. The feedback from student-users were used in planimplement-review-improve cycle to further develop the modules. Subsequently, the student-instructors applied the module and transferred spatial inquiry knowledge and skills to 31 year-one BEd geography students in the latter half of the project. This project represented an initiative of the EDUHK to be reinvolved in geographical education in Hong Kong.