Small-Group Work and Relational Thinking in Geographical Mysteries

Relational thinking is a necessary skill for building students’ individual capabilities and a core concept in geography education. Geographical relational thinking refers to being able to give interrelated, causal explanations for geographical phenomena such as regional change. The aim of this study was to gain more insight into differences in relational thinking between small groups of students working together on an assignment to explain a regional event which was framed as a geographical mystery. This insight could help teachers to advance students’ geographical relational thinking skills. Two geographical mysteries were examined with data from 69 small groups in Dutch upper secondary education. The two mysteries resulted in differences in the level of relational thinking, which were partly explained by small-groups’ on-task behaviour. Many student groups showed a low level of geographical relational thinking. Findings point to the need to incorporate exercises into geography lessons which require the use of thinking and reasoning with interrelated causal relationships.