WHAT WE SEE AND WHAT THEY SEE - SLIDE TESTS IN GEOGRAPHY

While slides are commonly used to illustrate themes and concepts in re gional geography courses, we argue that slide tests are also effective tools to test students' understanding of these themes and concepts. A fter briefly discussing the purpose for using slides, we check our cla ssroom environment against visual screening standards. We outline proc edures for testing with slides and generalize five pretest results. Th en we consider the qualitative results derived from three formal exami nations. Themes addressed in these examinations include wealth versus poverty, language diversity, housing characteristics, transportation m odes, deforestation, and the Panama Canal. We consider areas of visual confusion and misinterpretation, and follow with suggestions for impr oving slide set tests. Finally, we suggest implications for analysis o f slides scanned into computers.