Productivity Profiles of PhD-Granting Geography Departments in the Unites States: 1980–1994

In our study, 48 U.S. departments that grant geography PhDs are compared along four measures of academic productivity. Using 1980–1994 as the base period, research productivity of faculty was assessed by counting book titles, as well as authorships in 77 journals. Teaching productivity was determined by placement of PhDs in graduate programs of geography in North America, and by a weighted index of teaching outcomes. Data were summed for departments, but are reported primarily as productivity per person (per FTE count). The results point to a wide variety of departmental profiles, from those departments that appear to emphasize teaching outcomes to those that are more productive in book publishing and journal authorship, with several exhibiting a balance between teaching and research.     

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.     

Future Teachers of Geography: Whose Opportunity?

Abstract

Although geography is being revived in the K-12 curriculum, preservice teachers—candidates for the teaching profession—now in our universities are not universally reaping the benefits of cooperative efforts of geography and college of education faculty. Reform is appropriate in both camps. Colleges of education, influenced by many agents, including Certificate/licensing regulations, accrediting agencies, professional organizations, and a stream of reform movements, are bringing education to the level of a true profession. The dimensions of the reform underway and several key players offer great opportunities for geography education and for improving the general climate for teaching excellence in institutions of higher learning. Candidates for the new teaching profession and their education faculty are teaching and learning collaboratively, and conducting research in diverse school districts. Geographers have new reasons and new opportunities to participate in the education of the geography teachers of tomorrow.     

A Seventh Grade Problem Study of Czechoslovakia

Abstract

Computer technology has a rich history in geography education. The Internet represents the latest in technological advancements that continue to have important effects on geography curriculum and instruction. Many geographers are involved with Internet-based instruction, which some educators believe has potential to facilitate changes in how we teach and even what we teach. This article describes how the Internet is being used by some geographers for instructional purposes and discusses opportunities for improving teaching and learning with the Internet.     

A Scoring Guide for Assessing Issues-based Geographic Inquiry on the World Wide Web

Abstract

Inquiry-based learning has a long tradition in geography education, and many faculty members are using inquiry to tap the constructivist potential of the World Wide Web. This paper reports on the development of a scoring guide that assesses the degree to which teaching materials support issues-based geographic inquiry. The scoring guide was tested in a content analysis of geographers⁷ Web-based teaching materials. The results of the preliminary analysis suggest that relatively few geography teaching materials on the Web bear the characteristics of inquiry. Additional research is needed to determine whether teaching materials on the Web are facilitating a shift toward constructivist practice in the discipline.     

Census 2000 and Geography Education

Abstract

By using stream restoration as a seminar theme, geography faculty can create a topical course that helps provide a shared intellectual agenda for both physical and human geography students, while highlighting the holistic strengths of our discipline. Although it is not necessary that faculty have prior knowledge about the topic, a willingness to work collaboratively is essential to creating an effective course about this complex endeavor. The course can simultaneously meets the needs of students continuing on to graduate studies as well as those preparing for teaching careers. Guidance on how a stream restoration class could be used to teach the eighteen geography standards is also provided.     

Gaps,Intellectual Enthusiasms,Personal Insecurities: Response to “Stages on Journeys”

Abstract

The Department of Geography at Arizona State University implemented a field exam as part of its PhD program requirements. This field exam requires students to develop an independent field-based research project based on a general question in the student's specialty area. A survey of current and former PhD students and faculty members document how the field exam assists students in developing skills necessary for continuing graduate research and for preparing them for the rigors of academic employment. The outcomes of the exam include both long-term, process-related benefits and more immediate tangible rewards. For some students, the preliminary fieldwork and results redirect student interests and form the basis for their eventual dissertation. The field exam is adaptable to a diversity of geography research methods, subject areas, and graduate degree programs, while remaining grounded in the discipline's vibrant, widely respected fieldwork tradition.

     

Making Space for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Geography

Geography has a long tradition of community-engaged research and teaching. Conventional institutional and departmental norms in many U.S. universities and colleges, however, often discourage such engaged scholarship and teaching, especially among junior faculty. We argue that geographers are well poised to unravel society's twenty-first-century intractable problems if engaged scholarship is more intentionally supported. As community geographers in junior faculty positions at research-intensive universities, we discuss our experiences with placing community engagement at the core of our scholarship, highlighting opportunities for a more robust integration of engaged scholarship in academic geography.     

Seedbed of Reform: Arnold Guyot and School Geography in Massachusetts, 1849–1855

Abstract

Swiss-born Arnold Henri Guyot (1807–1884) was the first professionally trained geographer to hold an academic position in the United States. After his migration to this country in 1848 he lived for several years in Massachusetts. During this period he introduced contemporary German-Swiss ideas of geography to key opinion leaders in an important series of lectures (published as Earth and Man), established a system of weather stations, and lectured on methods of teaching geography in Massachusetts teachers' institutes and normal schools. This article discusses Guyot's work in the reform of school geography in Massachusetts as the seedbed for his later, better-known work as the author of innovative textbooks and other teaching aids.     

The Council at Work

Abstract

The field of geography education is sadly lacking in empirical data that might inform and underpin decisions about standard setting, curriculum design, materials development, teaching strategies, and assessment procedures. Large quantities of high-quality data are necessary if geography is to be successfully implemented in the American education system. This article advances four needs that, if met, would generate the data necessary to make the case for geography in America's schools. We need a new attitude towards research, a series of baseline studies, a research agenda, and a research clearinghouse if we are to make a convincing case for geography in America's schools.     

Commentaries on “Automated Geography”. Automated Geography and the DIDS (Decision Information Display System) Experiment

Age profiles of geographers having varying topical and areal subfields are compiled using the Guide to Graduate Departments of Geography in the United States and Canada, 1983–1984 and the 1982 AAG Directory. Major retirement trends for the next 10 to 20 years suggest that replacement of faculty may raise key appointment issues and priorities that may significantly change the nature of academic geography.     

Notes and News

Abstract

Full implementation of geography standards will require their adoption by all U.S. states and school districts for use in every school. Strategies for achieving this goal include: using the consensus process to its fullest, involving the energy and resources of geography organizations, and reaching out to others to help maximize the standards' influence.     

Writing in Undergraduate Geography Classes: Faculty Challenges and Rewards

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown both anecdotal and formal evidence of the benefits students obtain from doing writing activities in classes. Little formal discussion exists about how student writing in geography classes professionally affects faculty. In this article, focus shifts from student-derived benefits of writing in classes to faculty challenges and rewards for implementing writing in their classes. Based on the experience of participating in a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Fellows program, the authors discuss how faculty overcame challenges and reaped the benefits of student writing in their teaching and scholarly pursuits.     

Choosing the Network Less Traveled: Perceptions of Internet‐Based Teaching in College Geography

This study examines factors affecting the acceptance and utilization of the Internet as a teaching tool in college geography. Geography faculty members were surveyed with a questionnaire that measured their perceptions of Internet‐based teaching. An analysis of the survey data identified factors that influenced perceptions and adoption decisions among various groups of geographers. Overall, the results support hypothesized relationships between perceptions of innovations and rates of adoption and reveal intradisciplinary patterns of using the Internet for college geography instruction.     

Sources of Literature for Commercial Geography

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation has resulted in declining classroom time dedicated to geography instruction, especially in grades K-8. To combat this problem, a National Geographic Society Grosvenor grant provided resources allowing 28 teacher-authors to generate a package of more than 80 lessons that combine the teaching of geography and mathematics skills tested on Arizona's state mandated testing. When taught in 113 piloting classrooms that mirror Arizona's student demographics, GeoMath lessons generated statistically significant increases in performance in math skills and improved understanding of geography standards. In addition, a fourth of the K-8 piloting teachers surveyed felt that teaching GeoMath lessons increased in their level of comfort in teaching mathematics. Given the success of this GeoMath strategy, and a prior GeoLiteracy program, we advocate here a national agenda of articulating geography curriculum to high-stakes tested subjects of reading and math.     

Measuring Research Data Uncertainty in the 2010 NRC Assessment of Geography Graduate Education

Abstract

This article characterizes and measures errors in the 2010 National Research Council (NRC) assessment of research-doctorate programs in geography. This article provides a conceptual model for data-based sources of uncertainty and reports on a quantitative assessment of NRC research data uncertainty for a particular geography doctoral program. Findings indicate that important variables, including faculty totals and allocations and publication counts, are substantially undercounted, with important and negative impacts on program research activity measures. Further, these research measures are highly sensitive to small changes in counts and are particularly problematic for interdisciplinary fields such as geography. We caution against using the 2010 NRC data or metrics for any assessment-oriented study of research productivity.     

AN ESTIMATE OF ANNUAL GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTANT EMISSIONS FROM GRASSLAND FIRES AND AGRICULTURAL BURNING IN THE TROPICS

Faculty development in the fullest sense depends largely on the faculty member's learning environment. This article suggests ways in which departments can provide a context for professional growth through management of faculty assignments, professional rewards, departmental activities, and internal support. Leadership, consistency, and patience are discussed as the keys to a departmental approach to faculty development. The professional growth and productivity of its faculty members are obviously important determinants of a department's stature and hence its ability to remain viable in a period of academic retrenchment. Other elements of departmental policy that affect a unit's survival capabilities will be the subject of another article by these same authors to appear in the February issue.     

Internet-Based GIS in an Inductive Learning Environment: A Case Study of Ninth-Grade Geography Students

Abstract

This article reports the results of a qualitative case study that explored the use of Internet-based geographic information systems (IGIS) with ninth-grade geography students. The students worked in teams to examine the geography of Africa using IGIS resources with the instructional goal of developing a presentation on a significant issue facing one region or country. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of IGIS as a tool for integrating geospatial technologies into ninth-grade geography curriculum and instruction within an inductive learning environment. The findings for this study indicate that IGIS can be a successful tool for geography education in an inductive learning environment. Based on qualitative data collected through classroom observations, focus group interviews with students, student work samples, and a teacher journal, two assertions are offered: students perceived expanded freedom as a positive aspect of this IGIS project and IGIS projects such as this can lead to gains in students' cultural awareness and empathy for distant others.     

The Environment of Gender and Science: Status and Perspectives of Women and Men in Physical Geography

In 1995 and 1996 we undertook surveys to identify the status, perspectives, and contributions of women and men in physical geography and geosciences/geology, and to study the evolution of our fields. This paper presents the results of the physical geography survey, and considers the following questions: How have academic men and women physical geographers' professional development experiences differed? Do men and women in physical geography emphasize different research areas? Do their research methods differ from one another? Gender differences were identified most strikingly in rank and tenure status, research topics and methodologies, and professional satisfaction. Generational differences by academic rank were identified in professional satisfaction and in pull factors. Minor gender differences were found in dual career couple status, but this status had major effects on career choices and opportunities for both men and women. This paper is part of our larger project aimed at comparing and contrasting geoscience/geology and physical geography, and at including the earth sciences in gender and science studies that have long focused on mathematics, chemistry, biology, and physics.     

Effectiveness of Teaching Pedagogical Content Knowledge Through Summer Geography Institutes

Abstract

Research presented in this paper addresses two fundamental questions: how effective have state geographic alliance summer geography institutes (ASGIs) been in changing the classroom teaching behaviors of participants, and to what extent do the institutes reflect characteristics of effective inservice training? Both questions are grounded in Shulman's concept of pedagogical content knowledge—the notion that effective teaching requires knowledge of how specific ideas and procedures in a particular content domain can best be taught. On-site evaluations and four follow-up evaluations provided data regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the institutes as well as evidence regarding the institutes' long-term effectiveness in promoting change in geography instruction. Results of the study indicate that ASGI graduates not only make substantive changes in how they teach geography, but also conduct high-quality inservices that lead to changes in the teaching practices of their colleagues.