ÖzetMekânsal düşünme becerisi, günümüzdeki gelişmelere bağlı olarak ortaya çıkan ve coğrafya disiplinini yakından ilgilendiren bir beceri konumunda bulunmaktadır. Bu durum, coğrafya eğitiminde öğretmen ve öğrencilerin sahip olması gereken becerileri de etkilemektedir. Bu çalışmanın temel amacı, mekânsal düşünme becerisinin Türkiye'de kavramsallaştırılmasına katkıda bulunmak ve bu becerinin nasıl coğrafya eğitiminin bir parçası olabileceğini irdelemektir. Temel olarak mekânsal düşünme becerisinin coğrafya disiplinindeki yeri, tanımının nasıl yapılması gerektiği ve coğrafya eğitiminin bu beceriden nasıl faydalanabileceği konuları ele alınmaktadır. Modern coğrafya eğitiminin en temel kavramı olan mekânın pedagojik açıdan değerlendirilmesi ve mekânsal düşünme becerisinin öğrencilere kazandırılması gereklidir. Eleştirel bir yaklaşımla literatür taraması yapıldıktan sonra yazarların gözlemleri çalışmaya eklenmiş ve çalışma tamamlanmıştır. Aynı zamanda mekânsal düşünme becerisinin coğrafya dersi öğretim programında bir coğrafi beceri olarak yer alması gerektiği savunulmuştur. Anahtar Kelimeler: Coğrafya eğitimi, beceri, mekânsal düşünme, mekânsal düşünme becerisi AbstractThe skill of spatial thinking has emerged depending on today's developments and is closely related to the geography discipline. This situation affects the skills that teachers and students should have in geography education. The main purpose of this study is to contribute to the conceptualization of spatial thinking skills in Turkey and to examine how this skill can be a part of geography education. It mainly deals with the place of spatial thinking in the geography discipline, how to describe it and how geography education can benefit from this skill. Space is the most basic concept of modern geography education and it needs the pedagogical evaluation as a skill that should be acquired to the students. By conducting a literature review with a critical approach, the authors' observations were added to the study and the study was completed. At the same time, it was argued that spatial thinking skills should be in the geography curriculum as a geographical skill in Turkey.

This study was conducted in order to examine how thematic maps created with geographic information systems effect the success of 10th grade students.

Many different barriers have been identified which limit integration of spatial technologies into secondary school education. Because of these challenges teachers tend to concentrate traditional teaching methods instead of removing obstacles on using spatial technologies. However, we may remove physical (lack of hardware, software) and technical (lack of computer) barriers in terms of requirements of geography teachers. Geography teachers who can combine their technological skills with pedagogical and field knowledge are the ones who meets today's educational needs. It is necessary to organize in-service training (IST) activities that can meet today's needs in geography education, prepared in line with the needs of teachers and helpful in developing their technological competencies, to which they can participate voluntarily. The aim of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate in-service training GIS course among geography teachers using an open source software, free data and geographical technological pedagogical content knowledge (G-TPACK) model. The research employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods and techniques. Our study proved that in-service GIS training which was admired to attend by teachers according to the needs analysis, have improved their skills and knowledge.

This study aims to analyze the views of geography teacher students on the GIS course conducted with screencasts during the distance education process. Furthermore, the study reveals, along with the reasons, how the process of capturing and sharing screencasts with students can assist instructors. At the end of the term, 27 students studying in the second year of the geography teaching undergraduate program were asked about their opinions of the lesson. The data were collected through a structured evaluation form consisting of open-ended questions to evaluate the course. In the analysis of the comments obtained, MAXQDA software, which is frequently used in qualitative data analysis, was applied. The expressions in the answers were analyzed using the content analysis technique. Overall, the results prove that the beneficial aspects of the GIS course, which consists of applications and is conducted with screencast, outweigh the theory. Thanks to the screencast model, students can use their time efficiently and watch the videos repeatedly whenever and wherever they want. Nevertheless, the results reveal that extra methods are required to motivate students to transfer theoretical information and that screencasts have some disadvantages.