Geograhpical mistakes: types and reasons, ways and processes

Abstract

This article examines the features of making geographical mistakes in the contexts of school education, preparation and passing the Unified State Exam. The relevance of the research is determined by the necessity to analyze the mistakes made by school graduates at the Unified State Exam (USE) in geography, in order to provide additional educational material for geography school teachers and eliminate gaps in the knowledge, skills and abilities of schoolchildren. Besides analyzing such mistakes the research was aimed at considering the geographical mistakes made by schoolchildren, as well as reasons for them and ways of elimination. The following principal research methods were used to achieve this aim: theoretical analysis of geographical, psychological and pedagogical literature on the problem under study, statistical, and pedagogical analyses. The authors have highlighted common types of geographical mistakes. All the recurrent mistakes made by schoolchildren at the exam can be divided into four groups associated with: work on cartographic material, misunderstanding of cause-and-effect relationships, misformulated conclusion or incorrect analysis, and incorrect spelling or pronunciation of the names of geographical objects. The following conclusions on the reasons of geographical errors were made: low demand for the 6-8 grades educational material in senior grades; lack of knowledge of geographical terms; misunderstanding of the role of geographical location for the development of the territory; the laws of development of nature and social economic processes and phenomena. The results obtained have certain significance for both future graduates planning to take the Unified State Exam and considering field of geography as their future profession, and geography teachers in comprehensive schools.