The National Geography Standards and Your Undergraduate Curriculum: The Opportunity That Knocks More Than Once

Abstract

Geography For Life: National Geography Standards 1994 offers university geographers opportunities in the areas of program assessment and development. This article describes an assessment process that is applicable to both individual courses and geography programs. The process can strengthen programs by making them more consistent. As a result, geography may have a more powerful presence in teacher certification programs. Additional techniques for enhancing geography's role in preservice education curricula are also outlined. Finally, the article expresses concern that geographers at the university level will not take the recently published National Geography Standards seriously, thinking they apply only to K-12 education. They are challenged to extend the Standards' scope and content to the baccalaureate degree.     

Environmental Science Education Programs: Opportunities for Geographers

Abstract

Environmental agencies in most states have an environmental education Web page that can point geography teachers to a variety of opportunities and resources to enhance their teaching. Most states provide linkages to local and national programs such as Project WET and Project WILD, and access to lesson plans and other teaching materials. A number of state agencies have environmental resource centers, teacher workshops, and grant programs for field trips and class projects. A few states have workshops that provide graduate academic credit and special certification. Much of the content of these programs contributes to fundamental geographic education themes as specified in the 1983 Guidelines in Geographic Education K–12 and Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994.     

Some Suggestions Concerning a Course of Study in Geography

Abstract

Over the next decade or so, the National Assessment for Educational Progress in Geography and the Geographic Education Standards Project promise to give geography a new definition as a school subject. This will challenge the educational community to re-examine how geography is taught and learned across all the grade levels, K-12. If geography is to be perceived as an essential subject in preparing students for citizenship as adults, not only must its image change, but its content and the pedagogy that delivers it must be modified as well. To achieve those ends, new curricular models grounded in cogent and applicable research must develop through partnerships of teachers, teacher educators, learning theorists, and professional geographers.     

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.     

Geography and National Education Policy

Abstract

The National Geography Standards must be relevant to everyone associated with educational reform. The special advantage enjoyed by geography during the last administration is slipping away. The focus has shifted from the national to the local level. One way geography can demonstrate its relevance is to strengthen its ties with environmental education.     

Overcoming Geographic Innocence in Geography Education

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of providing geographic training to prospective teachers from the perspective of a secondary school teacher who also teaches a social studies methods course. Research in educational journals provided a background for describing the lack of geographic training among social studies teachers. While the National Geographic Society's alliance network is addressing this issue among practicing teachers, there is still a need to include some geography training for preservice teachers. Suggestions are offered for including geography within the context of the social studies methods course. A plea is also made for geography professors to include the new National Geography Standards in their courses, especially in introductory courses.     

The Geographic Imperative

Abstract

With the publication of Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994 in October 1994, geography has taken a big stride forward in demonstrating to teachers the breadth and significance of its discipline. This talk focuses on three aspects of geographic reality in the lives of teachers and students, under the title of “The Geographic Imperative.” Consideration of the Imperative and three axioms is intended to support the fullness and classroom utility of the Geography Standards.     

AIDS to Successful Photography

Abstract

The National Geographic Society's Geography Education Program continues to work on improving geography in the nation's schools. A successful network of geography education Alliances is in place across the United States. These state-based Alliances emphasize grass-roots involvement by teachers and other geography educators. Features of the Geography Education Program include inservice teacher training at Alliance-sponsored summer institutes, institutes held at the Society's headquarters in Washington, and specialized institutes devoted to a specific topic such as technology in education, or water issues. In the near future, the Society's projects include urban outreach, technology training and application, development of preservice programs, and the implementation and dissemination of world-class standards in geography.     

Editorial

Abstract

Project GeoSim is a multidisciplinary effort by members of Virginia Tech's Departments of Geography and Computer Science, College of Education, and Learning Resources Center to develop computer-aided education (CAE) software for introductory geography and related classes. GeoSim laboratory exercises draw on the five fundamental themes of geography for their subject matter. The programs emphasize interactive learning combining the information capabilities of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with the techniques of computer simulation. The result is a series of geographic explorations that will make available some of the most exciting aspects of geography to a potential audience of 425,000 introductory geography students per year.     

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 in Alaska: Holding the Standards High

Abstract

In 1992, the State of Alaska Department of Education embarked on a standards-writing process as part of its Alaska 2000 reform effort. Supported by a Frameworks Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, standards were written in geography, government/civics, and history during 1993 and 1994. This article highlights an extensive statewide public consensus process used to generate the Alaska 2000 Geography Standards, which were modeled after Geography for Life: National Geographic Standards 1994.     

Mentoring: A New Approach to Geography Teacher Preparation

Abstract

Geography teacher preparation is an ongoing problem for the discipline. Changes in certification requirements and federal and state educational policies have diminished the role of colleges and universities in educating teachers. At the same time, geography education reform efforts have resulted in higher standards and an increased quantity of geography in the curriculum, pre-service programs have failed to produce an adequate supply of highly qualified geography teachers. This paper suggests that geographers implement geography mentoring programs to improve the quality of geography instruction in early-career teachers. A model developed for the National Geographic Society is described. The model uses Teacher Consultants as mentors to assist novice teachers at the stage in their development when they are most ready to improve practice: between years two and five of their career.     

Rockin' and Rappin' in American Music: Themes and Resources

Abstract

As a relevant aspect of contemporary culture, music is a significant part of the lifestyles of students at all levels of education. Thus, use of various genres of American music is framed in the context of the National Standards five themes of geography—location, movement, human-environment interaction, region, and place. Several classroom projects appropriate for grades 7–12 are identified, including data collection, map preparation, and development of a research paper. Teaching resources consist of references used in text, music geography bibliography in addition to references, data sources, useful music-related websites, and list of research paper topics.     

Teachers and University Faculty Cooperating to Improve Teacher Preparation

Abstract

The National Geography Standards provide an opportunity to forge close relationships with teacher-preparation programs. This article reports on strategies used by the Virginia Geographic Alliance to produce regional, crossdisciplinary teams of educators informed about the Standards. Each team will include a faculty member from every teacher preparation program in Virginia.     

Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days: Helping Teach the National Geography Standards

Abstract

Consistent with developments in American education pedagogy, geography educators have made great strides exploring a wide range of high- and low-tech methods for teaching and learning geographic concepts. This article draws on a qualitative analysis of essays in which college students discuss tenets of the National Geography Standards in the context of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. Most of the students in this study reported that not only did their knowledge of the world increase after completing the course assignment but that their interest in the discipline increased as well.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Experienced Teacher Participation in Preservice Programs: A Model in Geography at the University of Northern Colorado

Abstract

This paper discusses a model program for preparing secondary geography teachers in the Department of Geography at the University of Northern Colorado. The key feature of the program is the presence of an outstanding secondary teacher in residence throughout the year who team-teaches the Teaching Methods in Geography and World Geography courses with geography faculty, modeling effective ways of teaching the subject. Students are paired with Colorado Geographic Alliance teacher-consultants in summer institutes and for student teaching. Analysis of formative evaluation data collected through the third year provides some measure of the program's success. Students have responded favorably to the use of a variety of teaching strategies, the opportunity to discuss with faculty why certain strategies are utilized, and how their own constructed lessons have worked in their student teaching. They have also reported that their understanding of geography has improved from taking the team-taught courses.