THE IMPACT OF AUTHENTIC LEARNING ON ACHIEVEMENTS OF GEOGRAPHY STUDIES STUDENTS AND THEIR ATTITUDES IN THE DIRECTION OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

Abstract

The study objective was to check the impact of authentic learning (AL) on the achievements of Geography studies and attitudes in the direction of the geographic information system (GIS). For this purpose, mixed method studies research design was applied, and quantitative data gathered from the academic achievement test and through GIS attitude scale and qualitative data was collected through semi structured interviews.  The data was collected in two groups. 40 students were consisting of control group and 40 were consist of experimental group of tenth class geography study students in Malaysia. Among of these, experimental group has been taught through the AL activities, whereas the control group has been taught through activities of textbook which was prepared according to the geography studies curriculum. The quantitative results shown that it was found a significant change within experimental groups scoring and was also a significant change within the experimental groups of average pre-test and post-test scoring in the GIS attitude scale. On the other hand, the qualitative results had shown that student were not bored during the classroom lectures in the course of geography studies, and they were being more active in the class. Along with these findings, the study added a body of literature that could helped to increase the new research area in future and could helped to the geography teachers and academic policy makers to know about the importance of GIS scale.