Geospatial education as a method of improving the skills of geography teachers

Several obstacles are limiting the successful introduction of geospatial technologies (GST) into school geography and geographical education and the most important is the low geospatial education of teachers. Therefore, this study aims to develop a curriculum for an advanced training course and conduct an experimental analysis of the effectiveness, with a focus on the content of geography education programs in schools and the demands of teachers for geospatial knowledge. General scientific methods such as reviewing, analyzing, synthesizing scientific articles, and comparing regulatory documents on education were adopted. The analysis of the role of GST in the curricula of secondary education in Kazakhstan and a survey of the professional needs of geography teachers in geospatial education led to the development of a 2-level basic and advanced training course for geography teachers in addition to a manual. The experimental analysis related to the effectiveness of the basic level curriculum conducted through "pretest" and "posttest" on 24 teachers showed an increase in spatial skills from "insufficient" and "average" to "high" and "very high". The results are expected to support the introduction of GST in school geography and contribute to speeding up the process.