From reading digital maps to thinking geographically: Assessing students' ability in regional geography in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) transformation
Abstract
Regional geography education aims to foster geographical thinking, enabling students to comprehend the relationships among physical, social, and spatial phenomena through digital map interpretation in the era of AI transformation. However, regional geography is often perceived as challenging due to its broad scope and the cognitive demands involved in integrating spatial and historical information. While prior research has primarily emphasized the acquisition of factual knowledge, limited attention has been paid to assessing geographical thinking through essay-based map interpretation. This study evaluates students' geographical thinking in a Regional Geography course by adapting Peter Jackson's Geographical Thinking Framework to the context of regional geography studies. A quantitative descriptive design was employed, involving 56 undergraduate students who had completed the Regional Geography course. Data were collected using an essay test designed to assess four dimensions of geographical thinking. The findings reveal an overall mean score of 82.5, indicating a generally good level of geographical understanding. Regarding the specific dimensions of geographical thinking, "Proximity and Distance" achieved the highest score (96.4%), followed by "Space and Place" (94.5%), "Scale and Connection" (85.2%), and "Relational Thinking" (55.1%). The lower result for the "Relational Thinking" dimension indicates that students still struggle to connect various geographical phenomena and explain the interrelationships between components within a region, despite generally demonstrating strong geographical thinking abilities. This study contributes by extending the Geographical Thinking assessment framework to the field of regional geography and provides an evidence-based framework for designing instructional strategies that strengthen spatial-historical reasoning in higher education geography.
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