Elementary Pre-Service Teachers’ Map Location Skills of European Union States

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to ascertain the ability of elementary pre-service teachers’ map location skills of European Union member and candidate states. Besides, the effect of countries geography course on the location skills of EU states on political maps was also investigated. In the assessment tool, the names of 28 countries including both EU members and candidates were given and through the statements in the instruction the participants were asked to locate these countries on the map. The same assessment tool was used both for pre-test and post-test. The SPSS program was used for the processes of computation and analysis of the data. As a result, it was found that the success of elementary pre-service teachers on locating the EU states was 41% in pre-test; whereas it increased to 63,1% in the post-test and that the countries geography course had a positive effect on elementary pre-service teachers’ map location skills of EU states.