Teaching Geography to High School Students with Academic Deficits: Effects of a Computerized Map Tutorial

This research investigated the effectiveness of two treatments designed to teach the locations of 28 major cities in Asia to students identified as learning disabled and remedial enrolled in a ninth-grade world geography class. In one treatment, students were presented the locations of 14 cities by completing a computerized map tutorial. In the other intervention, students were asked to learn the locations of 14 different cities by referencing an atlas and transcribing their findings to a work map. Results indicated that the computerized map tutorial produced significantly higher performance than the atlas condition for students with learning disabilities and remedial pupils. Within treatments, no significant difference was noted in the performance of the two groups. Several practical applications of computerized graphics for students with academic deficits are discussed.