Experiential Learning,Spatial Practice,and Critical Urban Geographies

Abstract

Experiential learning pedagogies are being adopted across undergraduate education and touted as an effective strategy for enhancing student learning. This paper develops an explanation for how and why such pedagogies can foster students' critical thinking and learning. Drawing on data collected from first-year students in “field based” urban geography courses at an urban university, I show how students' existing knowledge of urban spaces and specific parts of the city is constructed from a variety of sources and experiences, and can be incorporated in experiential learning activities in ways that foster critical learning. Such an approach is crucial to creating learning environments in higher education that include a greater diversity of student identities and life experiences.     

Positionality and Active Learning: Confronting Privilege in Field-Exercise Design

Abstract

University instructors are increasingly drawing on active learning exercises to engender critical thinking skills among students. In this article, we introduce the design and implementation of an active learning exercise about mobility and transportation that we assigned in an introductory human geography class at the University of Georgia. The students' responses and the survey instrument we used to assess the effectiveness of the exercise revealed disappointing results and caused us to think carefully about the role of positionality in designing active learning exercises. In this article, we argue that we need to understand privilege—particularly class privilege—in order to design effective assignments.     

Intermediate school's trip to India: Preparing for competence

In November 2010, students from a Palmerston North intermediate school embarked on a 2‐week excursion to India. Qualitative research was carried out before, during and after the trip. Results discussed in this article focus primarily on the students' account of their trip, especially their perceived cultural competence and their explanation for it. Accounts of their competence are also offered by the parents and teachers, for example, they especially valued the students' extensive school‐based preparation. Insights gained from the experiences of this trip may be applied to other, including older, cohorts of students embarking on overseas school field trips.     

Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory and Its Application in Geography in Higher Education

Abstract

Kolb's experiential learning theory is one of the best known educational theories in higher education. The theory presents a way of structuring a session or a whole course using a learning cycle. The different stages of the cycle are associated with distinct learning styles. Individuals differ in their preferred learning styles, and recognizing this is the first stage in raising students' awareness of the alternative approaches possible. This article presents some case studies of ways in which the theory can be applied in university geography.     

Critical GIS pedagogies beyond ‘Week 10: Ethics’

Over two decades after the scholarly interventions that coalesced into ‘critical GIS’ as a field within GIScience, critical GIS remains underdeveloped in conversations on teaching and learning. The literature on GIScience education has emphasized content more than pedagogies – what to teach versus how to teach to move students toward particular learning objectives. This emphasis is reflected in dominant curricular approaches to critical GIS, in which questions around the complicated origins and complicit social, political, and economic relationships of GIS are taken up as discrete topics, tacked onto instruction that otherwise prioritizes technical dimensions of GIScience. We argue that GIScience coursework must resist such modularization by approaching critical GIS not as a set of topics, but an orientation to GIS praxis that ‘does’ GIS from within a questioning stance, to ask how we know. We outline specific curricular shifts and teaching practices we have used to foster this orientation in GIS students, offering ways of continually engaging students in practicing this orientation as they learn strong technical GIScience content. Finally, we trace the successes, challenges, and tensions sparked by these critical GIS pedagogies, drawing on student evaluation comments from our courses and reflecting on broader implications for GIScience instructors and geography faculty.     

Critical Thinking in Physical Geography: Linking Concepts of Content and Applicability

Abstract

This research examines the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) in an online geographic information systems (GIS) course for adult learners. Adults expect to take greater control of their learning and tend to be self-directed. Students are encouraged to take an active role as problem-solvers in PBL courses. The effectiveness of PBL in face-to-face courses has been shown. Effectiveness in online courses is demonstrated in this study. The performance and experiences of students and instructor in two online courses are compared. The results show that PBL can be more engaging than traditional methods, making PBL-GIS a good choice for an online adult audience.     

Student Learning of Place: Learning Progressions Can Help Fill the Gaps

This commentary is a response to Larsen and Harrington's article titled “Developing a Learning Progression for Place” (2018). The commentary includes a discussion of the benefits to other content areas that research on student learning of place can provide. The commentary also describes the coherence that learning progressions can bring to research on student learning of complex, interdisciplinary domains of study.     

Social Attitudes Predict Biases in Geographic Knowledge*

Three principal components were found to underlie Texas university students' experiences with and attitudes toward Canada, the United States, and Mexico: diversity orientation, Mexican experiences, and Canadian experiences. Diversity orientation included positive attitudes toward Hispanics, Canadians, minorities, interethnic friendships, and dating and was negatively correlated with natio‐centrism (e.g., believing U.S. citizens receive the world's best education). Diversity orientation and natio‐centrism were not related to experiences with Mexico or Canada. Students estimated the locations of Canadian cities too far north and Mexican cities too far south. Biased estimates for Mexican cities were negatively correlated with diversity orientation, not experience with Mexico.     

Mental Mapping: A Lesson That Creates Itself

Abstract

Mental image and place-preference maps of college students in Florida were created through a two-part lesson. The patterns revealed by these maps were linked to students' life experiences, census data on migration and income, and similar studies conducted in other states. Students prefer states with established migration links to Florida and better income/job opportunities. Because the maps could not be created without their input, students were wholly engaged in a lesson that uses concepts in population geography and cartography to fulfill several national geography standards.     

Interactive Videos Enhance Learning about Socio-Ecological Systems

Two forms of interactive video were assessed in an online course focused on conservation. The hypothesis was that interactive video enhances student perceptions about learning and improves mental models of social-ecological systems. Results showed that students reported greater learning and attitudes toward the subject following interactive video. Moreover, metrics of network complexity applied to students' concept maps of socio-ecological systems increased longitudinally through the course highlighting greater awareness of socio-ecological linkages. We conclude that interactive video can increase awareness of interdisciplinary connections in socio-ecological systems and should be more widely employed in general education geography courses.     

Learning to do geography? University students posing questions in GIS laboratory exercises

In many higher education curricula, pre-structured step-by-step laboratory exercises in introductory courses in geographical information systems (GIS) are an important part of the training of future geographers. The reasons for this approach to teaching GIS are manifold, such as large numbers of students, off-the-shelf desktop software that is often complex, technical challenges, and scarce faculty resources. Often the reasons are well agreed upon by members of a university faculty and among the students. Research in other fields has shown that the use of a controlled manual for laboratory work often provides low learning potentials. However, not much empirical research has dealt with this issue within a GIS learning environment. Inspired by research on the value of student-generated questions within science education, the authors take a closer look at the type of student-generated questions and their relation to students' self-image of their learning approach in two pre-structured GIS laboratory settings at two Danish universities. They conclude that the vast majority of student-generated questions are of a basic information type and independent of the students' self-image of their learning approach. Further, it is found that wonderment questions, i.e. questions that are reflective in nature and show students the process towards acquiring extended geographical knowledge and software proficiency, are rarely asked.     

Early Instruction in Geography: An Exploration in the Ecology of Kindergarten and First-Grade Geography Education

Abstract

Student drawn maps have been relatively neglected as an evaluation tool, despite their potential utility for assessing geographic knowledge. Comparison of students' sketch maps at the beginning and end of the year can inform the teacher about how students' representations of the world change over the course of instruction. Used as a pretest, they can be used to diagnose areas of strength and weakness within a class; as a posttest they can be used to assess students' achievement and the effectiveness of instruction. In this paper we provide an easy method for sorting and summarizing sketch map data, which is illustrated using maps collected from two sixth grade classes. We also outline a framework to guide teachers in generating questions to ask about their own students' maps.     

Putting together the pieces of the puzzle: Traces of New Zealand in international school geography textbooks

How does a fairly remote space (the islands of New Zealand) contribute to the development of geographical literacy in the geography textbooks of post‐socialist (Romania), Western (Germany) and post‐colonial (Mexico) countries? A four‐step analysis of three textbooks of international selection revealed different regionalisation cultures combined with traditional and recently implemented educational paradigms of geography education and led to a similar result. Despite the many ways in which New Zealand's geographical distinctiveness could be used to enhance geographical literacy, there are few operationalisations of educational targets that might contribute to sustainable long‐term learning. Further, these results also offer a possible explanation for the absence of the ‘southern lands’ on students' cognitive maps of the world.     

Comparing Teacher-Directed and Computer-Assisted Instruction of Elementary Geographic Place Vocabulary

Abstract

Increased knowledge of geographic place name vocabulary continues to be important to student academic success. Place knowledge is a vital part of students' learning to be responsible citizens by helping them become more conscious of the world around them and preparing them to enter a global workplace. This study compares computer-assisted to teacher-directed instruction for teaching elementary geographic place name vocabulary. Direct instructional methods can improve student performance with clearly identified student objectives, structured content delivery, and monitoring of progress. Instruction provided via computers appears to be a more effective method than traditional direct instruction.     

The Utility and Organization of a College Field Course: Examining National Park Management

Abstract

This article reviews the benefits of field-based instruction, particularly as it complements traditional classroom learning. It suggests that direct observation and hands-on learning associated with field-based instruction raise students' interest level and improve their understanding and long-term retention of targeted concepts. In addition, planning, implementation, and evaluation strategies are provided and recommendations are outlined for instructors interested in organizing or improving a field course at their learning institution. The park management field course offered between spring and summer semesters at Oklahoma State University provides an example of the major components of a successful field course.     

Placing Geography's Institutions into Geographic Pedagogy: Colearning and Coproduction of Knowledge as Strategy to Do Geography Differently

This article discusses New Zealand geography's recent engagement in institutional regeneration that is aimed at redeveloping the knowledge claims its geography community can make. This engagement has led to new levels of understanding among many New Zealand geographers of colearning and coproduction of knowledge as geographic processes involving knowledge, power, and authority relations. The article briefly outlines two linked trajectories: those relating to the gradual recognition of institutional collapse, and the commitment to remaking a new and generative institutional framework, and the uptake of ideas from international geography that helped with prioritizing revisioning and institutional regeneration. Lessons from New Zealand geography's sobering institutional experiences and new efforts at collective learning and activity to extend the spheres of geography's action are salutary for international geography.     

Teaching physical geography at university with cartoons and comic strips: Motivation,construction and usage

This article presents the cartoons and comic strips that the author draws and has used in his teaching of physical geography at the undergraduate level since 2011. In the context of an image‐based culture, this article discusses the pedagogic goals that cartoons and comic strips fulfil: enhancing learning and creativity, associating pleasure with learning, pushing students to think ‘outside the box’ and relating the students' learning experience to a media framework popular with students. Cartoons and comic strips also answer particular necessities related to the teaching of physical geography. Using characters placed in hypothetical situations, they explain the process of doing geography and being a physical geographer.     

Service-Learning: Critical Traditions and Geographic Pedagogy

Abstract

The rise of service-learning in higher education has been critiqued as little more than community service that encourages students to “do good,” but fails to generate original scholarship or social change. In this article, we argue that service-learning gives geographers the opportunity to challenge these critiques, by demonstrating the practical and political implications of collaborative research methodologies, while conveying powerful conceptual understandings of inequality. We begin by interrogating the philosophical overlap between experiential and service-based learning in the educational philosophy of John Dewey. Using this foundational approach, several theoretical and methodological debates in geography are examined, celebrating and drawing lessons from classic and current service-learning programs. We conclude with a discussion and reflection on experiences with implementing similar pedagogical projects.     

Preparing Preservice Teachers to Incorporate Geospatial Technologies in Geography Teaching

This study evaluated the efficacy of geospatial technology (GT) learning experiences in two geography curriculum courses to determine their effectiveness for developing preservice teacher confidence and preparing preservice teachers to incorporate GT in their teaching practices. Surveys were used to collect data from preservice teachers at three intervals over one semester. Results indicate preservice teachers' confidence and competencies to successfully integrate GT in their teaching increased over the duration of the study. The findings highlight the value of providing GT learning experiences in geography curriculum courses and contribute to the literature on preparing preservice teachers to incorporate GT in teaching geography.     

Defining Appalachia: Public Policy and Regional Dynamics in Appalachia's Low-income Counties, 1965-2000

Abstract

The extant literature on place location learning resolves in varying degrees that place location knowledge (PLK) is deficient in the United States and abroad. This is particularly true for younger school-attending age groups. This study has three main aims: to investigate the validity of that claim in regard to secondary-level students in Dublin by testing their PLK; to assess what characteristics of tested place locations render some sites more visible in students' eyes than others; and to investigate statistically what traits of the respondents shape their PLK. The implications of these findings on geographic education and future research are also discussed.