Browsing by Author "Anttonen, Sari"

The main purpose of this thesis is to find out pupils' attitudes towards geography as a school subject, what they think about teaching and learning geography. The purpose is also to find out the factors that make geography an interesting or uninteresting subject. Pupils' attitudes are important to consider when developing the subject itself. Pupils' ideas are also valuable tools for teachers to develop their own teaching. According to the earlier studies pupils' attitudes towards geography are quite neutral. Although attitudes are positive in general, geography is not perceived as a particularly interesting subject. Girls' attitudes towards geography have been a little more positive than those of boys. Girls also considered geography as a more important subject than boys did. The aim of this thesis is to gather more information about pupils' attitudes towards geography and to compare the results between girls and boys and between pupils on different grades. The information was collected via an internet based survey. The study population consisted of 131 respondents and there were respondents from every secondary school grade. The data was analyzed by using the SPSS 22 and Microsoft Excel -statistical programs. The results were studied including all respondents, girls and boys separately, and pupils on different grades separately. The results were compared to already existing results and there was also an aim to find out some new information about the subject of the study. According to this study pupils' attitudes towards geography were positive and geography was perceived as an interesting and important subject. The boys' attitudes were even more positive than those of the girls, although the attitudes in general were quite positive. The main difference between the sexes was that girls considered geography more difficult as a school subject but both sexes considered geography quite an onerous subject. Seventh grade pupils' attitudes were a little more positive than those of eighth or ninth grade pupils'. The main factor that explains the attractiveness of geography was a teacher who was enthusiastic about the subject and teaching. The pupils who thought geography as an uninteresting subject considered geography more clearly difficult and onerous than pupils in general. It is encouraging to notice that pupils' attitudes were so positive towards geography.