Preservice Geography Education

Abstract

Improving preservice education, especially geography preservice education, is difficult because few geography faculty understand the teacher education process, many education professors who prepare geography teachers are not geographically well-educated, education and geography faculties do not communicate effectively, and efforts by alliances and other organizations have focused on inservice teachers, for the most part. Recommendations to improve preservice education in geography are offered. The authors argue that none of these recommendations should be implemented without considering its relationship with all of the components of the geography education system.     

An Action Vocabulary for Thinking Spatially: The National Geography Standards and Defining What Students Should Know

Abstract

Geography for Life identifies what students should know and be able to do in geography at the conclusion of grades 4, 8, and 12, the benchmark years cited in the document. The action statements that are integral to implementing each of the 18 National Geography Standards are driven by a set of verbs used to identify specific intellectual skills. These skills encourage students to think spatially. The purpose of this article is to identify the action verbs used in the activity statements, inventory their frequency and distribution across the benchmark grades, and define in detail the seven that are most commonly employed. These action words are examined within the context of Bloom's cognitive taxonomy (1956) to illustrate how the National Geography Standards are adaptable to one well-established schema for the structure of knowledge and thus applicable to others as well.     

Using Action Research to Implement the National Geography Standards: Teachers as Researchers

Abstract

Action research is defined as systematic classroom-based inquiry to solve teacher-perceived problems. It has been a component of education, particularly professional staff development, for the past century under several names although geography educators in the United States have rarely used it for this, or any other, purpose. This paper reviews the literature on action research in order to argue for its use in geography education. A preliminary exploration of action research-based professional staff development is described. The results of the project indicate that action research is potentially useful as a way to guide teachers to reflect on their practice. It is argued that geography educators should include it in their repertoire of reform techniques.     

The Status of Geography in the Social Studies Curricula of Canadian Schools

Abstract

Successful curriculum development that will have impact upon individual American classrooms remains the key to maintaining the momentum of Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994. Teachers and students must be able to translate the national geography standards from the national stage to the local classroom setting to become geographically informed people. One example of this development for elementary urban geography is the Main Street lesson plan. It encourages observation and analysis required by Standard 4: The geographically informed student knows and understands the physical and human characteristics of places. After testing in a variety of Missouri classrooms, instructors thought that Main Street was a unique way of studying urban places and allowing students to gain a greater understanding of place.     

Looking Toward the Future: A Concepts,Themes, and Standards Approach to Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract

Preservice teacher education based on content, skills, and perspectives specified in Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994 is essential for dissemination of the Standards to classrooms all across the country. Curricular materials are often structured around the five fundamental themes of geography; however, it is essential that teacher preparation courses integrate the content of the Standards into the themes of location, place, human—environment interaction, and region. One model of this approach to preservice education, as summarized here, provides future teachers with a conceptual basis for learning and teaching geography, enhancing opportunities for disseminating solid geography content to all grade levels nationwide.     

Making the Connections: Infusing the National Geography Standards into the Classroom

Abstract

How will the National Geography Standards change the way teachers teach? The Standards will provide teachers with a geographic perspective that will enable them to teach improved geography content while building geographic skills and knowledge that will benefit their students for the rest of their lives. By taking a fresh look at the content in the curriculum from a geographic perspective, teachers can make connections between the Geography Standards and our own classrooms. The Standards provide information and strategies for teaching geography. They can be used to create lessons which offer opportunities for students to “do” geography and apply the skills they are learning.     

The Value of Place Geography in a Commercial Geography Course

Abstract

This article summarizes methods used in a secondary school geography class to interest students in geography through examples drawn from local geography. Instead of relying on examples taken from exotic places to illustrate geographic concepts, the local landscape is used in the classroom to teach students about geography. The article is arranged according to the six essential elements of the National Geography Standards, but it does not imply that the methods presented should be used to teach the standards. Rather, the examples presented are used throughout a course in the geography of North and South America to develop an interest among students and, with examples from the local landscape, to increase student understanding of geographic concepts related to issues presented in the course.     

Geography and Multiple Abilities Program: Innovations in Teacher Education-Reconnecting Teaching to Students' Needs

Abstract

The University of Alabama is now offering a new and innovative, five-semester program that provides preservice teachers with both knowledge of and skill in using strategies and teaching methods associated with general and special education. The goal of the Multiple Abilities Program (MAP) is to enable teachers to accommodate the wide range of learning styles and developmental readiness for instruction of all learners in a given classroom, regardless of the labels with which the children are identified. This article describes MAP in light of the geography strand of the MAP curriculum. MAP students work with five topics in geography, which they use to develop a greater understanding of how authentic teaching and learning of geography are mediated by cognitive, affective, and social needs of children. MAP students take a particular topic in geography and design and implement instruction for it by creating authentic learning activities that offer elementary school students an opportunity to explore the topic. The variety that is systematically planned into the activities is the major means of accommodating differences in cognitive ability, learning style, level of physical and social development, and cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity.     

中外“国别经济地理”体系设置与风格设计的比较

许多国家都出版有本国的经济地理研究著作．但是国家间对其经济地理学的研究不尽相同。本文选用我国及国外多部近期出版的18部“国别经济地理”书籍为载体,从对象、内容、结构、方式与思维诸方面,比较我国与外国“国家经济地理”著作在体系设置与风格设计等多角度的差异,并对这些差异进行了详尽分析,以促进中国经济地理借鉴先进经验并走向国际化。     

Teaching American Indian Geography and History with New Perspectives: The Lodge Pole River Project Example

Abstract

A three-year institute called “The Lodge Pole River Project” was designed to change educator perceptions of American Indian historical geography and encourage the creation of balanced and culturally sensitive American Indian K-12 curriculum. This project offered unique opportunities to assess a geography institute's impact upon teacher knowledge and perceptions towards Native people and pedagogical approaches to teaching about American Indians and their landscapes. The assessment suggests that three weeks of field work, archival research, and curriculum writing increased participant knowledge of American Indian history and culture, solidified sympathetic perceptions and attitudes towards Native people, and strengthened the ability of educators to offer different interpretations of American Indian geography and history to their students.