Preservice Geography Students’ Exposure to Systems Thinking and Cooperative Learning in Environmental Education

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a cross-curricular approach that needs to be accommodated in all subjects in the training of students as recommended by UNESCO. This South African case study of preservice geography students is presented for the purpose of understanding how they experienced systems thinking and a cooperative teaching strategy. A qualitative research approach was applied as the research design. Interpretation of the data was done through thematic analysis, which indicated that exposure to the pedagogic approach bore positive results. Teaching and learning strategies promoting the integration of ESD should form part of the training of geography students.     

Chinese Junior High School Students' Perceptions of Geographic Fieldwork: A Case Study

After nearly ten years of implementation of the first junior high school geography standards, Chinese geography educators have been increasingly incorporating fieldwork into their geography teaching. This study examined student perceptions of fieldwork from an international perspective by reviewing student fieldwork reports and administering a questionnaire to 337 junior high school students aged approximately fifteen years. The results demonstrate that the students' perceptions of fieldwork were primarily positive and that they found field experience to be interesting. Fieldwork provided the students with deepened understanding of issues, cognitive and affective benefits, transferable skills and knowledge, social skills, demonstration, and memorable experience. In addition, some factors for improving geographic fieldwork were identified.     

Problem-Based Learning for Promoting Student Learning in High School Geography

ABSTRACT

This study determines the impact of problem-based learning on a preuniversity geography class. Learning activities include problem analysis, information collection, an examination of concepts, oral presentations, and group summaries in relation to current and perennial geographical issues of local and/or global concern. Assessment for learning and assessment of learning were done by the teacher, classmates, and students themselves. Results showed that students could analyze problem statements and present their understanding systematically but varied considerably in organization, argument, and quality of thinking. To seek improvements, teachers should become more active facilitators while encouraging students to learn as problem solvers. Teacher training and school-based support are needed for creating a collaborative inquiry-oriented atmosphere in the classroom.     

The Geography of Education and the Education of Geography: Agricultural Extension and the Political Ecology of Education

The spatial nature of learning is increasingly a focus of geographic inquiry. I argue that the spatiality of education, which is where formal learning occurs, has the potential to shape students’ spatial imaginaries. I analyze the role the spatiality of agronomic education plays in the historical construction of the social and physical landscape in southeastern Pará, Brazil. In opposing ways, the first Green Revolution, and agrarian social movements’ more recent agroecological Green Revolution are found to structure agronomic education and spatial imaginaries. The perspectives of agricultural extension agents trained in traditional agronomic programs are compared with teachers from an agroecological school located in an Amazonian agrarian reform settlement of Brazil's Landless Workers’ Movement. I collected these data over 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork. To analyze these data, I employ a political ecology of education perspective, which highlights how education and political economy interact to mediate relations with, access to, and contestations over natural resources. The geography of education and the education of geography exist in a complicated feedback cycle: Education is not neutral but ideologically charged and affects conceptions of productive landscapes, providing students intellectual and economic power to put their visions of landscape into effect.     

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.     

Index to Volume 100

Abstract

The integration of GIS into the secondary curriculum can aid student learning of geography. Through a partnership between a local high school and our university, high school students received nine hours of classroom instruction and field-based training on GIS and GPS to complete a mapping project. Upon completion, a test based on seven geography core curriculum units was administered to these students and to a group of university students who did not receive GIS training. Results of the test revealed that high school students significantly outperformed the university students, suggesting that GIS does aid in the learning of geographic principles.     

Are teachers and students ready for the new middle school geography syllabus in Sweden? Traditions in geography teaching,current teacher practices,and student achievement

The article examines the relationship between selective traditions in geographical education, what middle school teachers choose to emphasise in geographical education, and student achievement. The study, conducted in Sweden, is based on observations made by students in teacher training programmes, interviews with teachers, and analyses of a test administered to middle school students. It shows that selective traditions in geographical education are strong, resulting in a focus on country-related knowledge and map-reading skills. Both teachers and students seem unclear about what other subject-specific skills geography teaching provides. Furthermore, students have difficulty achieving a high level of geographic reasoning. The authors argue that a subject-specific language in geography is important in both teaching and assessment. They stress that students need more practice in geographic reasoning, since this is required by the new curriculum and in the national test in geography for Year 6 (i.e. pupils in the age range 12–13 years). The study adds to earlier research by highlighting Swedish middle school teaching, which is a neglected field within curriculum studies, and by using a combination of methods to analyse the impact of selective traditions.     

Geography fieldwork in a 'risk society'

The recent decline in fieldwork provision in UK schools has partly been attributed to false perceptions of risk among teachers. This paper examines a case study based on geography teachers' perceptions from six state secondary schools in a northern English city. The research shows that owing to the inherent subjectivity of risk perception, these teachers' perceptions of fieldwork risk cannot be dismissed as false. Furthermore, it is argued that owing to the implicit, but powerful, spatialities of teachers' imaginations of fieldwork, these teachers will first need to re-evaluate the role and value of fieldwork before they are willing to re-enter the field.     

Farewell to Bongo,Ahab and Iglook

Abstract

Hilltop Geography is a year-long integrated geography program that involves first and second graders in a hands-on laboratory approach to exploring their immediate environment while at the same time providing a stepping stone to their understanding of the world. This article will describe how teachers and students in a rural New Mexico school have been utilizing the semi-arid hills surrounding their building as an outdoor geography learning laboratory, involving parents and the local community in the process.     

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.     

Building a sustainable urban future: An Auckland experience

Abstract:  The Untouched World Sustainable Cities Youth pilot project was held in Auckland in July 2005. This article outlines the activities that school students were involved in during the week and reflects on the nature of the learning experience. Whilst not specifically targeted at geography students or teachers, the project does support the outcomes of senior high school geography programmes.     

A constructivist approach to using GIS in the New Zealand classroom

The development of the revised New Zealand Curriculum provides an excellent opportunity to investigate GIS-based learning pedagogies within the social sciences classroom. The new curriculum privileges inquiry-based activities with a more participatory approach to learning, providing students with greater autonomy in their studies. This paper emphasises the value of GIS technology for extending student learning when situated within a problem-based learning (PBL) framework. Using GIS, students undertake geographic inquiry through meaningful learning grounded in constructivist learning theory. PBL is well suited as an instructional strategy for integrating GIS as students actively learn when presented with authentic, real-world problems.     

The Challenges and Rewards of Introducing Field Trips Into a Large Introductory Geography Class

Fieldwork is an essential component of undergraduate geographic education, but with growing enrollment and limited resources few first-year instructors incorporate this activity in their courses. This article reports on the challenges of incorporating fieldwork into a large first-year course and the strategies adopted to respond to these challenges and the achieved learning benefits. Field trips were created to cater to approximately 120 students directly engaged in field activities, with each student submitting an individual written report. Through the field activities, students developed a better understanding of geography, a stronger class community, and a more positive relationship with instructional staff.     

Recapturing quality field experiences and strengthening teaching–research links

Because of unwieldy numbers, and in an attempt to strengthen teaching–research links, the teaching team of 'Field Research Methods' discarded a class fieldtrip in favour of more flexible fieldwork. The new approach continues to use inquiry-based learning but has research problems more closely linked to staff interests. Students are responsible for most aspects of the research process including some logistical planning of fieldwork. Although often anxious at first, students welcomed this approach and appreciated the host of transferable and research skills they developed. Tutors benefited from the enhanced learning outcomes for students and a strengthening of teaching–research links.     

Technology Integration in K–12 Geography Education Using TPACK as a Conceptual Model

There is a need for quality professional development programs and instructional models addressing the needs and challenges of K–12 technology integration in the geography classroom. This study used a mixed-methods design employing surveys and observations to evaluate teacher experiences within a professional development program focused on developing in-service geography teachers’ technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) through content-specific learning tools and resources. Results indicate that instructional scaffolding plays an important role in improving teachers’ ability to integrate technology in pedagogically meaningful ways geared toward enhancing students’ geographic inquiry skills.     

Geography and math: a technique for finding population centers

In the absence of core requirements that secondary and/or college-level students fulfill specific geography proficiency standards prior to graduation, geography will continue to be taught informally by teachers as a corollary to other major disciplines. These teachers, however, generally lack formal training in the concepts and sheer information of the geography field. Moreover, available texts at these levels tend to simply present statistical data on countries and maybe compare them to those for other countries. The duty of explaining spatial distribution and density implications falls upon the teacher. The basic mathematical concepts of mean and media are easy measures which can be used by teachers to teach the concepts of mean center and median of a population distribution. The processes by which these central points are determined are described and applied respectively to province and state data for China and the US as suggested student activities for practice and discussion.     

Teaching Experiential Learning in Geography: Lessons from Planning

Abstract

Geography increasingly relies on training of professionals who can apply geographic concepts to solve real-world problems. The planning profession for years has been training professionals to work in the area of community planning. Planning programs typically include experiential learning modules throughout the curriculum. This article looks at how community planning approaches can be incorporated into geography programs in lower level courses to: (1) provide exposure to practical applications of geographic concepts; (2) give students experience with team dynamics; and (3) provide students with experience in real-world client relations. Advantages and challenges of experiential learning are identified and discussed. An example of an experiential learning exercise adapted from a planning application is presented. The exercise was developed to enhance learning in a geography curriculum.     

Disrupting the 'whiteness' of fieldwork in geography

This paper argues that whilst fieldwork continues to make an important contribution to the learning and teaching of geography, analysis of the present-day practice of UK universities taking students on long-distance overseas trips remains apolitical and, by and large, concerned with practicalities. If this practice is analysed by locating it within a postcolonial theoretical framework of 'whiteness' it is then possible to look at the differing standpoint and positionality of those doing the viewing and those being viewed, and to also see the connections between the imperialist history of geographical exploration and present-day overseas field trips, in particular to developing countries. Using personal experience of taking UK undergraduates to visit historic slave trading sites in The Gambia as an example, the paper argues that the potential of field study to contribute to the critical pedagogy of geographical fieldwork within UK institutions of higher education requires stronger political analysis.     

Reading the World: Integrating Geography in an English Language Learner Literacy Program

Abstract

English language development classes focus on teaching students of other languages how to speak, read, and write English. They must also prepare students to meet the many standards and requirements that are prerequisites to content classes, such as geography, and high school graduation. This discussion focuses on the integration of literacy and geography in a classroom with English language learners. A common English language development model, the “Into, Through, Beyond” model of learning, sets a foundation that integrates components of English language acquisition with language arts and geography standards. In turn, this approach to learning prepares the learners for success in social and academic arenas.