Foundational GIS competence, cognitive demand and essay-response maturity in the Finnish geography matriculation examination

Veeti Varjo, Panu Lammi, Petteri Muukkonen 

This study analyses how upper secondary students demonstrate foundational GIS competence in essay responses to a Finnish geography matriculation examination. A random sample of 100 Finnish-language responses was examined using qualitative deductive content analysis, the revised Bloom’s taxonomy, the SOLO taxonomy, and the GeoTAITO model. The task addressed geographic information, spatial datasets, and spatial analyses through an applied e-sports context. Although the national core curriculum expects students to master foundational GIS- and geomedia-related competencies, many did not define geographic information as the combination of location and attribute information, and most could not name a spatial analysis. Responses were stronger when discussing practical benefits for players, game companies, and broadcasters. The findings identify a foundational bottleneck in GIScience education: contextual familiarity with spatial representations does not necessarily develop into formal understanding of spatial data and GIS analysis.