Analysis of Sustainable Development Questions of College Entrance Examination Geography Papers in China: 2010–2020

Fengtao Guo, Yushan Duan, Shanbo He, Qian Gong and Zeyang Yao
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Fengtao Guo: School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Yushan Duan: School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Shanbo He: Guangzhou No. 65 Middle School, Guangzhou 510450, China
Qian Gong: School of Teacher Education, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Zeyang Yao: School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-24

Abstract: International consensus has been reached for the 2030 Agenda, and governments have adopted measures for the gradual implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this implementation, education plays a crucial role. Recently, the extent to which Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has become the norm in national curricula, teacher education, and student assessment has been a focus of extensive research. The present study introduces the geography curriculum and the reform of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) in China in the 2000s. A global indicator framework for SDGs is used to analyze sustainable development (SD) content and characteristics in NCEE geography papers. Findings reveal that SD accounts for an average of 71% of score points among the 24 sets of papers. Sustainable agriculture, terrestrial ecosystems, settlements, and water are well reflected in questions, especially water-related ecosystems, resilient agricultural practices, transportation system, tourism, desertification, and degraded land and soil. Sustainable development questions have the characteristics of setting open questions, paying attention to question situation, being close to real life, being moderately difficult, paying attention to regional SD and human-nature relationship, and diversifying question-setting patterns. According to the analysis of papers, SD plays an important role in geography education.

Keywords: college entrance examination; geography; exam questions; sustainable development; characteristic; assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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