English abstract
The present study investigated the level student-teachers' mastry of understanding map skills in Sultan Qaboos University, college of education. The population of the study consisted of 68 student-teachers studying social studies in College of Education. Of this population, 48 student-teachers studying in their last year were selected to form the sample of the study.
For the purpose of the study, a test was used as the instrument of the study. The test consisted of 42 multiple choice questions. The questions were distributed between four domains of understanding map skills which are reading maps, analyzing maps, explaining maps and deducting from maps.
The results of the study can be summed up as follows:
• The low mastry of student-teachers in understanding maps as their performance which was (57.43%) was lower than the defined level (60%).
• The low mastry of student-teachers in reading maps, analyzing maps and deducting from maps as the means were 56.29%, 58.85% and 54.16% respectively which is lower than the defined level.
• Students-teachers reached the defined mastry level in the skill of explaining maps as their performance level was 60.41%.
• There were no significant differences between student-teachers' mastry of understanding maps that can be attributed to students' specializations (geography or history).
• There were no significant differences between student-teachers' mastry of understanding maps that can be attributed to the gender of the students.
A number of recommendations are made according to the results of the study and a set of suggestions for future research are proposed.
