The Essential Tension in Learning GIS

NAFADISE med Frederik Voetmann Christiansen, Lene Møller Madsen og Camilla Rump, IND (Foredraget vil blive holdt på dansk)

Abstract

What do you learn, when you follow a course in Geographical Information Systems (GIS)? And how does your actual work with the geographical problems in the course influence your general conception of GIS, and the role GIS will play in your professional identity in the future? 8 Students were interviewed twice during an undergraduate course in "GIS in planning" at the University of Copenhagen.

The interviews were made before the students started working on the central problem of the course (preconception interviews), and follow-up interviews were made after the exam (post-conception interviews).  In terms of acquiring the intended knowledge, most students solved the problems adequately and all did well on the exam. However, the interviews show that the heuristics of the learned content was extremely different for the 8 students - different students conceived of the geographical problem of the course as either a revelation, a means to an end, or a decided turn-off. 

The analysis is based on a generalization of Thomas Kuhn's idea of an "essential tension" in paradigmatic knowledge, and his theory of learning by ostension. A conceptual framework for such analysis is developed focusing on students' different "ways of seeing" phenomena. The framework is subsequently applied and shows the different significance of working with the geographical problem for the different students life-world trajectories.  The article concludes that the essential tension in learning GIS is based on differences in values of different students. Recognition of these differences in students' values and preconceptions are important to address in the education of future students.