Designs, Techniques, and Reporting Strategies in Geography Education: A Review of Research Methods

Abstract

A wide variety of research is being completed and published in geography education. The purpose of
this article is to provide a general overview of the different types of methodologies, research designs,
and techniques used by geography education researchers. Analyzing three geography education
journals, we found 191 research articles published about geography education, of which, 55 used a
quantitative design, 65 used a qualitative design, and 71 used mixed methods. This article highlights
specific articles to provide examples of how a variety of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
techniques were conducted and presented in the literature. The implications of this article is to provide
geography education researchers with guidance when reporting research results in an effort to promote
replicability and longitudinal research. Geography education benefits from all types of methodological designs and techniques, each serving a different purpose based upon the individuals’ inquires and
research questions.