Evaluation of geography test questions for the 2020 Beijing Academic Level Examination

The geography test questions for the Beijing 2020 General High School Academic Level Examination are based on the requirements of the "General High School Geography Curriculum Standards (2017 Edition)" and the "Beijing 2017 High School Geography Teaching Guidance Opinions". Implement the "Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Reform of Educational Methods in Ordinary High Schools in the New Era", optimize the examination content, innovate the examination format, implement the fundamental task of cultivating people with moral character, and cultivate socialist builders with comprehensive development of moral, intellectual, physical, artistic and labor and lay the foundation for successors. 2020 is the first year that Beijing’s new college entrance examination implements a graded academic test. Geography has changed from a comprehensive liberal arts test to a geography single subject test, achieving a smooth transition. The test questions are closely combined with the actual situation of geography teaching in Beijing, and at the same time, taking into account the actual situation of students' online learning during the epidemic, the difficulty of the test questions is scientifically set, stable with changes, and innovative with changes, reflecting the characteristics of the capital. The test questions focus on the reality of social life, focus on the core competencies of geography, highlight the ideas and methods of geography, reflect the basic, comprehensive, applied and innovative nature, and give full play to the selection and educational functions of high school academic level examinations , which has a good guiding role in high school geography teaching.

1. The main features of geography test questions

(1) Pay attention to national development and highlight the value orientation of cultivating moral character and cultivating people

The test questions are combined with national development strategies and decisions. Guide students to care about the development of the country and integrate their own development into the development of the country; infiltrate traditional Chinese culture, guide students to experience the crystallization of China’s excellent traditions and long history in production and life during the question-taking process, and stimulate students’ patriotism; pay attention to society Life hot spots guide students to connect geography learning with life and social development, and use geographical knowledge and methods to solve practical problems in real situations.

For example, question 1 of the multiple-choice question uses "A classmate created a grain painting of "My Motherland"" as the background material, permeating traditional Chinese agricultural culture, reflecting the integration of agricultural production and art, enhancing aesthetic experience, and stimulating Patriotic feelings. Multiple-choice questions 5 and 6 use "Diurnal changes in solar radiation under fine weather conditions in a certain place in my country from the beginning of autumn to the end of summer" as the background material to guide students to combine the twenty-four solar terms with geography learning and promote the excellent traditional Chinese culture. Build national self-confidence; the option in question 6 involves the Diaoyu Islands, guiding students to enhance their awareness of homeland and cultivate their feelings for home and country. Multiple-choice questions No. 11 and 12, based on the construction of the Yinchuan-Xi'an High-speed Railway (Yinchuan-Xi'an North), guide students to pay attention to the country's fight against poverty and establish the great ideals and firm beliefs of dedicating themselves to the modernization of the motherland. The 19th comprehensive question uses "In May 2020, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone released the "High-quality Development Action Plan (2020-2022)" as the test question material, and explores "the development of the four leading industries in the development zone from a geographical perspective" "Different advantageous conditions", "the park's positive role in local social and economic development", etc., pay attention to the great achievements and development potential of the hometown's economic construction, and stimulate the enthusiasm for loving hometown and building the motherland.

(2) Integrate into live situations and test the core competencies of the geography discipline

The test questions are fully integrated with students’ life experiences to construct situations; they deeply explore social life phenomena and form situations; they are closely linked to classroom teaching process to create situations; make full use of different graphic materials to present situations. Use real situations to guide students from different perspectives and dimensions to combine their own experience, social life, and geography learning, and test students' ability to use geographical knowledge and methods to solve practical problems in real situations and students' core competencies in geography.

For example, questions 3 and 4 of the multiple-choice questions use the situation of "a student participated in the practical activities of fossil protection excavation" to present the geological cross-section diagram hand-drawn by the student, allowing students to judge the most likely excavation in the picture. Find the location where the fossils were found and test your geographical practice ability. Multiple-choice question No. 11 uses the scenario of "The Shaanxi section of the Yinchuan-Xi'an High-speed Railway (Yinchuan-Xi'an North) was successfully completed in June 2020" as an example to allow students to analyze the terrain, rivers, geological hazards and other characteristics of the area where this section of the railway passes, and examine the area Cognition. The 14th multiple-choice question uses the "Uganda National Day" held at the World Horticultural Exposition as a context, allowing students to read pictures and infer Uganda's geographical location, topography, rivers, lakes, wetland areas and other natural features to test regional cognition.

Question 16 of the comprehensive question uses "Middle school students from a certain school went to the Daning River (Chongqing Section), a tributary of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, for field practice" as the material to create a learning and exploration situation, and strengthen acquisition through practical activities of drawing statistical charts And the process and method of interpreting geographical graphic information, further explaining the relationship between watershed erosion and sediment transport, fully embodying the value of geographical practice. On this basis, the effective measures for comprehensive control of water and soil erosion in the river basin are briefly described, highlighting the concept of coordination between man and land, and strengthening the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".

Question 17 of the comprehensive question takes "my country's preferential import policy for products from Bangladesh" as the background, uses farmers to adopt "floating vegetable gardens" to design agricultural production scenarios, and explores local farmers' adoption of "floating vegetable gardens" for planting The natural causes of the method, based on the industrial production situation in the ship-breaking industry cluster along the coast north of Chittagong, require an analysis of the main conditions of the local ship-breaking industry cluster, and enumerate the environmental problems caused by the ship-breaking industry. The area involves different regions of Bangladesh. It tests students' regional cognitive literacy through different scale areas, analyzes the impact of natural elements on human activities, and penetrates the concept of man-land coordination.

The 20th comprehensive question uses the development story of an Austrian village from the 1760s to 2001 as a learning and exploration situation. It designs the impact of tourism on the geographical environment, highlights the impact of human activities on the geographical environment, and highlights the concept of man-land coordination. .

(3) Presenting rich images to highlight the ideological methods of geography

There are 14 groups of geographical images in the whole volume, with rich and diverse image types, including regional maps, landscape maps, and schematic diagrams , statistical charts, contour maps, hand-drawn drawings, mobile phone signal positioning maps, etc., fully reflecting the importance of images in solving geographical problems.

Geographical images provide rich materials for constructing vivid geographical situations, provide geographical information from different angles, stimulate students' experience, and activate geographical knowledge. Highlight the instrumental role of geographical images in solving geographical problems. Focusing on graphic and text information design issues, students' ability to integrate graphic and text information to analyze geographical issues is effectively tested.

For example, question 7 of the multiple-choice question presents the live precipitation distribution map in a certain place in the eastern coastal area of ??my country within 36 hours. The image is a contour distribution map that students are familiar with, but it is superimposed with specific Information such as time "36 hours" and space "East Coast of my country" require students to correctly interpret the image content and understand the image information, and comprehensively use the factors that affect precipitation to conduct a comprehensive analysis. This aspect can test whether students have a deep understanding of precipitation. The principles of the role of each influencing factor can also reflect students' level of analyzing problems using geographical methods.

Question 16 of the comprehensive question uses the "Schematic Map of the Daning River Basin" to test students' ability to obtain information from a geographical perspective, determine terrain types, infer terrain characteristics from the flow direction of the river, and outline the main terrain features of the basin. Question 20 of the comprehensive question focuses on a village in Austria, "The nearby forest line is about 2070 meters above sea level". It obtains information from landscape maps, temperature curves and precipitation histograms, discusses forest vegetation types, approximate growth months, etc., and examines the use of geographical environment. The ability to analyze problems based on holistic principles.

(4) Innovative question design, focusing on students’ geographical thinking process

The overall difficulty of the test paper is moderate, and the question design is well-structured. On the one hand, it has a good degree of differentiation in the examination of students' ability levels. On the other hand, it also helps different students truly reflect their own levels. The design of the questions reflects the nature of the geography discipline and highlights the characteristics of the geography discipline. The questions and topic materials are closely combined to form a complete problem situation and fully examine the students' thinking process. The questions are friendly and peaceful, consistent with students' usual learning process and key content. The examination ideas that highlight the combination of basic, comprehensive, applied and innovative are in line with the examination requirements for graded examinations.

For example, question 10 of the multiple-choice question presents the main socio-economic data tables of a country in 1998 and 2018, including the employed population, urbanization rate, gross domestic product, the proportion of primary, secondary and tertiary industry output value and employment Aspects such as population proportion objectively describe the development changes of the region. Students are required to effectively extract and process data based on the laws of regional economic development they have mastered, objectively analyze the current status of regional development, and form judgments about the future development of the region. This kind of examination of the thinking process of human geography is novel and not difficult, but it can guide students to make full use of geography knowledge to solve problems.

Question 17 of the comprehensive question uses a schematic diagram of the position and central air pressure changes of tropical storm "Amphan" before it makes landfall. It asks questions from multiple angles to test students' analysis and explanation of the characteristics of spatiotemporal changes in geographical events from a spatiotemporal perspective. Ability. Comprehensive question No. 18 uses the map of Laizhou Bay and its surrounding areas as the test question material. It asks questions from multiple angles and levels to speculate on the changing trend of the width of the mouth of Laizhou Bay and explain the change process. Through the open-ended question of "choose one", evaluate The advantages and disadvantages of transportation modes will be examined. Students will be asked to use factors analysis, comprehensive comparison, regional correlation and other methods to explain the changing trends and processes of geographical phenomena. The 20th comprehensive question focuses on "permafrost" and combines pictures and texts. It requires comparing the differences in permafrost between two places and explaining the reasons. It first asks about the effect, then the cause, and tests the students' comprehensive geographical thinking process of time and space.

(5) Relying on teaching reform to show the charm of geography education

The whole volume is rich in material and lively, and the test questions are fully designed from the perspective of students learning and understanding the geographical environment, reflecting It provides students with the main role in geography learning and is conducive to arousing students' enthusiasm. Guide students to truly reflect their experiences of phenomena in life and classroom learning processes in the process of answering questions. From natural laws, to social hot spots, living environment, to national development, to the harmony between man and land, it reflects the breadth of geography and is closely related to the development of the country. Feeling the beauty of nature, development, culture, and harmony reflects the unique charm of education.

For example, questions 9 and 15 of the multiple-choice questions, the proposition materials are closely related to life, guiding students to pay attention to the geographical phenomena around them, and consciously establish connections with the geographical knowledge they have learned, echoing the new curriculum reform’s impact on classroom teaching. The requirements highlight the interest of geographical knowledge, reflect the practicality of geographical knowledge, and show the unique charm of the geography discipline.

Question 9 uses the mobile phone information number positioning function that is very familiar to students in daily life to present the changes in the population distribution of working days in a newly built urban area of ??a city. Faced with the obvious difference in population density between day and night, students need to grasp the key information "working days". To find the areas with differences between day and night in a region, it is necessary to use relevant knowledge of urban functional zoning for comprehensive analysis. During the process of answering questions, students can truly feel the fun of thinking about real-life problems from a geographical perspective. Question 15 follows the hot spots of the global energy crisis and proposes bioplastics using corn, wood, etc. as raw materials. It guides students to compare the characteristics of traditional energy and new energy in production and use, and to think dialectically about the production and consumption of new materials that may still exist. The question reflects the unique value of thinking about regional development from a geographical perspective and lays a solid foundation for students to think about complex issues in reality.

Comprehensive question No. 19 uses the paulownia flower landscape on both sides of Hongda Road, "Beijing's new tourist 'check-in' place," as the material to create a life situation and explore the tourism resource value and viewing methods of the paulownia flower landscape. , together with Beijing’s classroom teaching reform, is close to the life interests of Beijing students, and combines tourism-related knowledge learned in the geography subject with specific practices.

In short, this year’s geography test questions for Beijing’s general high school academic level examination guide students to pay attention to national development, cultivate feelings for home and country, highlight the value orientation of cultivating moral character and cultivating people; focus on connecting social hot spots and life reality, and create Real situations test the core competencies of the geography discipline; present rich and diverse geographical images to guide students to obtain graphic and textual information, and demonstrate the ideological methods of the geography discipline; innovatively design open and multi-level questions to demonstrate students' geographical thinking process, allowing students of different levels to Students have room to develop their talents.

2. Inspiration for geography teaching

(1) Pay attention to production, life and the development of geographical science, and fully tap the educational value of geography in teaching

Overall Grasp the content of geography teaching, guide students to use a geographical perspective to examine practical problems in production and life, and comprehensively, systematically and dynamically understand the geographical environment and the relationship between man and land from an overall perspective, fully mobilize students' enthusiasm for learning, and play their role as learning subjects. Help students establish a harmonious view of man and earth, promote the improvement of students' core geographical literacy, and give full play to the educational value of geography.

(2) Pay attention to the teaching of basic knowledge and basic skills, and implement the backbone knowledge of the geography discipline.

Teaching should pay attention to the formation process of geographical knowledge and geographical skills, and follow students’ cognitive characteristics and Through appropriate teaching activities, we guide students to learn in depth, construct the basic concepts, basic principles and basic laws of geography, and explain and predict the development and evolution of geographical phenomena.

(3) Focus on geographical image teaching and cultivate students’ ability to acquire, interpret geographical information and effectively use geographical information to solve geographical problems

Geographic images are important carriers of geographical information and can concisely , comprehensively presents multiple geographical elements and the relationships between them. In teaching, it is necessary to cultivate students' ability to obtain geographical information from geographical images, as well as their ability to interpret the interrelationships of geographical events from the perspective of elements, time and space, and regional perspectives, and improve students' map literacy, regional cognition, and comprehensive thinking levels.

(4) Actively carry out geographical practice activities, explore situation-based and problem-oriented classroom teaching, and improve students’ core geographical literacy.

In teaching, pay attention to reproducing or simulating geographical processes through geographical experiments , analyze the characteristics and development and evolution rules of geographical phenomena through inspections and surveys. Apply geographical practice activity materials to the classroom, or use life, production and academic research materials to create problem situations, carry out interactive, heuristic, exploratory and experiential classroom teaching around the problems, and actively explore and practice the effective implementation of core geographical competencies. Teaching strategies to effectively improve students’ core geographical literacy.

Reviewer:

Teaching researcher Chen Hong, Basic Education Teaching Research Center, Beijing Academy of Education Sciences

Teaching researcher Gao Zhenxin, Basic Education Teaching Research Center, Beijing Academy of Education Sciences

Teaching researcher Wu Xuemei, Beijing Xicheng District Education and Training College

Teaching researcher Zhao Junli, Beijing Dongcheng District Teacher Training Center

Teacher Gu Fengzhi, Beijing No. 11 Middle School