This document presents a comparative analysis of GIS education between practitioners and educators. It shows that while both groups rank concepts like problem solving, spatial thinking, and communicating results as very important, educators place slightly less emphasis on workforce culture skills. Additionally, practitioners view learning software as more important than educators. The document uses charts to compare how each group ranked the importance of various GIS skills and concepts.

1. PRELIMINARY COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF
GIS EDUCATION: LINKING PRACTITIONERS
AND EDUCATORS
Michael N. DeMers
October 12, 2012

2. I AM A
GIS INSTUCTOR
To save time let’s
just assume I never
make mistakes

7. Top Performers

8. Bottom Performers

9. Concept Average Ranks (Max = 7)
7
6
5
4
3
Practitioners
Educators
2
1
0

10. Problem Solving
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
Practitioners
Educators
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Not at all Important Very Unimportant Somewhat Neither Important Somewhat Very Important Extremely
Unimportant nor Unimportant Important Important

11. Spatial Thinking
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
Practitioners
Educators
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Not at all Important Very Unimportant Somewhat Neither Important Somewhat Very Important Extremely
Unimportant nor Unimportant Important Important

12. Communicating Results
50.00%
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
Practitioners
Educators
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Not at all Important Very Unimportant Somewhat Neither Important Somewhat Very Important Extremely
Unimportant nor Unimportant Important Important

13. Workforce Culture
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
Practitioners
20.00% Educators
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Not at all Important Very Unimportant Somewhat Neither Important Somewhat Very Important Extremely
Unimportant nor Unimportant Important Important

14. Learning the Software
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
Practitioner
Educator
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Not at all Important Very Unimportant Somewhat Neither Important Somewhat Very Important Extremely
Unimportant nor Unimportant Important Important