An understanding of geography: The perspectives of English primary trainee teachers

There have been few studies of trainee teachers' conceptions of the term ‘geography’. Building on these, this study identifies a number of conceptions of geography held by primary school trainee teachers in England. Their ideas are compared with their understanding of the reasons for teaching geography to young children. Similar outcomes emerge. While a small number of primary trainee teachers see geography education as concerned with the study of places, a slightly larger group view teaching geography as developing children's sense of responsibility for the earth and its people. However, by far the largest groups of students perceive geography's role to be to develop younger children's awareness and knowledge of the environment. Additionally, a sizeable group of trainees see geography as providing knowledge about the features and countries of the world. The implications of these findings are considered for the brief geography study units which primary teacher trainees take as part of their initial teacher training programme in English higher education. The conclusion is that it is important to widen primary trainee teachers' perspectives during even the briefest of units, not least to enable them to teach the national curriculum requirements for geography in primary schools. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Flexibility, technology, and the daily life practices of distance students living beyond the digital mainstream

In this paper it is argued that even though communication technologies release distance students considerably from their dependency on a campus, students are still very much connected to places in their daily lives. These connections are constituted through the “placing” of technology, the students’ relations to people in their daily lives and the students’ relations to the education institution. Communication technology not only releases students from the spatial dimensions; it also attaches them to specific places. It is argued that the use of technology in distance education can reduce the students’ flexibility even if they do not have to attend campus regularly. The empirical analysis presented in this paper is based on a case study of a Master’s degree programme in Public Management offered by Open University Indonesia (Universitas Terbuka).     

Provenance and sediment characteristics of contemporary gravel deposits at Sellicks Beach,eastern shore of Gulf St Vincent,South Australia

Sellicks Beach, located on the eastern shore of Gulf St Vincent, South Australia, is subject to wave-dominated processes and northward longshore transport. During winter, when wave energy is typically vigorous, gravel deposits are exposed across most of the beach, and three step-like berms are well developed. Sand is restricted to a narrow strip that is exposed only at low tide. In contrast, during summer, when wave energy is generally moderate to low, much of the gravel is covered by a thin veneer of sand and only the high berm, on the landward edge of the beach, remains as an obvious feature. Steeply dipping Neoproterozoic to Cambrian strata that outcrop strongly across Sellicks Hill are the original source rocks for the beach gravel; distinctive sedimentary textures, structures and fossils in the cobble-size clasts can be confidently matched with those of the provenance rocks. Much of the sediment entered the modern beach environment as a consequence of coastal erosion of transitional alluvial fan sediments. The oldest alluvial fan sediments are of late Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene age. Mount Terrible Gully provides a conduit for the input of fluvial sediment at the mouth of Cactus Canyon, where clasts as large as boulders accumulate across the beach. Sellicks Beach gravels are subject to longshore transport northwards. Relatively softer clasts, such as those derived from the Heatherdale Shale, are rare beyond Cactus Canyon. In contrast, quartzite clasts are more abundant towards the north. This lithological differentiation is attributed to preferential survivorship of clasts that are physically harder and chemically less reactive. The change in the shapes of clasts northwards, from predominately shingle-like ‘very platy’ and ‘very bladed’ at Cactus Canyon, to more ‘compact’ towards the boat ramp, is in accord with the more massive fabric of the surviving quartzite clasts. At Sellicks Beach, preservation of uplifted, coarse gravels, with entire and comminuted marine molluscan shells, of last interglacial age, provides evidence of neotectonism. At the landward margin of the beach, imbricated gravels in which pore spaces have been infilled with mud, and which show no evidence of modern coastal erosion, may provide evidence of continuing uplift during the recent Holocene. The geological setting, geomorphic framework and modern sedimentary regime at Sellicks Beach combine to provide an exceptionally useful outdoor laboratory for education in field geology.     

The shifting geopolitics of higher education: Inter/nationalizing elite universities in Kazakhstan,Saudi Arabia,and beyond

This article examines recent higher education projects in two resource-rich, developmental states: Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. These projects are indicative of broader trend across Asia to move beyond previous national universities, toward a state-initiated model of the globally competitive university, which is designed to become an regional hub for elite education. Drawing on a range of qualitative methods, I consider the geopolitical context in which these projects have been conditioned and materialized, with a focus on how they are legitimated by policy-makers in the two case countries. By reframing discussions about the globalization of higher education in terms of a geopolitics of higher education, I argue that the cases of Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia are not exceptions set outside of the hegemonic liberal system, but that they are ‘mirrors’ of recent internationalization agendas undertaken by elite Western universities. Through considering localized discourses of promoting knowledge-based economies, I consider how elites simultaneously work with and reconfigure globally-hegemonic discourses, and specifically how these elite university projects are part of broader authoritarian political configurations in Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.     

加强地质教育,为振兴安徽地质工作提供人才支撑

要振兴地质工作,为安徽经济发展提供有力的资源保障,关键靠地质人才。本文从分析安徽地质人才队伍现状和地勘单位人才需求出发,认为必须大力发展地质教育,以解决当前地质人才青黄不接的困难,并为此提出了相应的对策和措施。     

网络环境下地震科技信息管理者的知识构成与继续教育

网络环境下对地震科技信息管理人员的职业素质提出了新的要求。本文阐述了地震系统科技信息管理者应具有的知识构成和专业技能,探讨了对其进行职业素质培养教育的问题。     

施工企业建立安全生产管理体系的探索

论述了施工企业建设现代安全生产管理体系的重要性,并总结了广东煤炭地质局建设安全生产管理体系．促进安全生产的实践经验,提出了施工企业应从以建立完善安全生产责任制为核心,健全各项规章制度．加强员工的教育培训、资金投入和安全检查五个方面为重点建立现代安全生产管理体系的思路。     

回忆恩师——李连捷

李连捷先生是我国土壤科学的创始人之一,也是我国土壤科学的教育家,为土壤科学发展的地学理论基础和生产应用做了大量工作。我作为李连捷先生的研究生,有幸在先生身边度过了10年,切身体会到了他对研究生的关心和培养。他不仅教我学业,而且教我做人。他渊博的知识、宽广的胸怀和幽默的谈吐让我难忘。他注重调查研究,力求理论与生产实践相结合;他不墨守成规,注重创新发展;他精益求精,不畏困难,不怕挫折,乐观地面对人生都给我留下了终生受益的精神财富。     

Geographic Information Systems: A Tool to Support Geography and Environmental Education?

Geographic information systems (GIS) education is at a crossroads in the United States. Since its inception in the early 1990s, GIS has diffused slowly into select groups of K-12 classrooms through the efforts of geography and environmental educators. However, many of the assumptions underpinning the initial period of enthusiasm for the technology are now being questioned. This paper reviews issues identified as barriers to dissemination in order to help shape and inform the next phase of GIS implementation. First, the existing arguments for GIS in elementary and secondary education in the United States are reviewed and evaluated. Second, considerations related to developing an improved pedagogical foundation for GIS are explored. Finally, implications and suggestions for guidelines for the next decade of dissemination and implementation of GIS are discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

高校多媒体教程建设的思考——兼谈《地球科学》电子教材制作

结合高校电子教程的发展现状讨论了建设多媒体电子教程的必要性和可能性,并针对高等教育的特点提出了建设电子教程的目的及其应当具备的特点,最后以《地球科学》研制为例,介绍了教程研制过程中应当注意的几个关键环节和制作目标,强调了知识的整体感和表现形式的多样性。