ERIC Number: ED287777
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1987
Pages: 31
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A New Approach for Teaching and Evaluating Map-Reading Skills.
Mockovak, William P.
The project described in this paper was developed by the Census Bureau to train census enumerators. The approach called "geographic gameboard," consists of three components: (1) an imaginary, graphically depicted community (Abbotsville, Oklahoma); (2) a census map that corresponds to the census geography of Abbotsville; and (3) blank pages for listing addresses. Abbotsville is an imaginary rural community that was purposely created to reflect a wide range of living arrangements and geographic features. Employees learn to perform their job and use census maps by canvassing and listing the mailing addresses of residences in Abbotsville. As they do this, they correct and update census geography shown on an accompanying map of Abbotsville. An important feature of the learning experience requires the enumerators to go into the field and apply what they have learned. The training program's effectiveness was evaluated by a test and a comparison was made of addresses listed by the enumerator with an "advance" listing. The high average scores obtained on the test indicate that the "gameboard" training approach was very effective in teaching important procedural knowledge. Reports from people who observed the training indicated that it achieved its goal of keeping the trainees actively involved in the learning process. The test that was administered to measure the outcome of the training program and the test results are appended. (SM)
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Researchers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A