Implementing a Problem-Based Learning Approach for Teaching Research Methods in Geography

This paper first describes problem-based learning; second describes how a research methods course in geography is taught using a problem-based learning approach; and finally relates student and staff experiences of this approach. The course is run through regular group meetings, two residential field trips and optional skills-based workshops. Course evaluations improved markedly following the introduction of this approach and students appreciated the benefits of the problem-based learning approach, particularly through working in groups on authentic problems that were relevant to future workplace scenarios. They were also able to further develop a range of transferable skills, particularly in teamwork. However, they may not have increased other transferable skills (such as in oral communication) as much as desired due to the tendency for groups to draw on individual strengths to complete collaborative group tasks. Other concerns were group size, the high workload and coping with group dynamics. Tutors found the teaching to be enjoyable, relaxing and very rewarding but there were some anxieties due to the unpredictable nature of the course as well as frustration at knowing when to intervene. However, despite these difficulties for both students and staff, the authors are sufficiently encouraged by the response to continue teaching using a problem-based learning approach.     

关于师专教学质量问题的再思考

高等师范专科学校是我国高等师范教育的重要组成部分,担负着为基础教育培养合格师资的重任,其教学质量的高低,直接关系到基础教育的发展。因此,要提高教学质量,首先要树立正确的质量观,从实际需求出发,以发展的观点认识质量标准问题。同时,还应针对师专现有的教学状况,采取有效措施,努力提高教学质量,以便更好地服务于社会。     

A Framework for the Integration of DVD Technology in Geography Teaching and Learning

This article discusses the results when integrating digital versatile disc (DVD) technology in full-time second-year geography for BEd degree students at a university in South Africa, a developing country. It proposes a framework for the integration of the DVD in geography teaching and learning, steered by students’ needs, feedback and observations by the lecturer. The proposed framework recommends clear guidelines on how to integrate the DVD, as well as the interactions between the role players/resources. It also explains how the DVD was compiled, what was included and how it was effectively applied in conjunction with seminars, as an alternative to traditional lectures. An action research design was utilized and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected.     

Experimenting with Active Learning in Geography: Dispelling the Myths that Perpetuate Resistance

While some geographers have embraced active learning as a means to engage students in a course, many others stick to conventional teaching methods. They are often deterred by suggestions that it can be difficult to implement active learning where students have no prior knowledge of a subject, that active learning requires too much work of lecturers and students, and that there are significant institutional constraints to implementing active learning. In this article the authors draw on their experiences of utilizing active learning in five different countries before dispelling myths which continue to constrain the uptake of active learning methods. Finally, they provide simple guidelines for successful integration of active learning in geography courses.     

Using Teaching Observations and Reflective Practice to Challenge Conventions and Conceptions of Teaching in Geography

Cultural activities such as teaching and learning are highly complex systems that are deeply embedded in a wider culture and these factors impede change. Despite feeling directly the effect of the recent drive towards mass participation in higher education, most lecturers have not accounted for these changes in their teaching methods. Unless lecturers engage in critical reflection and ongoing discovery they stay trapped in unexamined judgements, interpretations, assumptions and expectations. Collaborative teaching observations and reflective practice were conducted by the author and colleagues with a range of experience within a geography department. Several surprising discrepancies appeared between lecturers' expectations and observations of the teaching sessions. The experience showed that, regardless of teaching experience, lectures allow the lecturer in his/her routine practice to neither appreciate his/her performance nor be aware of student understanding. Reflection on these experiences caused the re-evaluation of events and experience and the investigation of other firmly held beliefs that were frustrating and difficult to explain. If lecturers are to become proactive in their professional development, to question their teaching practice and become reflective practitioners, then our teaching culture must embrace the need for change and differences in teaching and learning.     

我国旅游实践教学课程、教材和教法研究述评

我国旅游专业研究人员普遍关注旅游实践教学研究,在课程、教材和教法方面分别形成了若干理论流派。这些理论流派的产生既缘自研究者对旅游实践教学现状的体认和他们的教学理念,又受到现行高校体制的影响。开展交叉研究、实证研究、中外对比以及改善旅游实践教学的制度环境,是提升我国旅游实践教学研究的基本办法。     

International Institutions and Social Learning in the Management of Global Environmental Risks

This article investigates the role played by formal international institutions in the broader process of international efforts to respond to and manage global and transboundary environmental risks. Because few international institutions are designed to deal with the broad nature of environmental risks, it focuses on institutional learning. By analyzing the experiences of the United Nations Environment Program, World Meteorological Organization, and other international institutions involved with global warming, this article identifies institutional properties (or functions) that encourage or inhibit social learning in the management of global environmental risks by international institutions, and that influence the adoption of such lessons by their constituent members.     

An Exploration of Peer-to-Peer Teaching and Learning at Postgraduate Level: The Experience of Two Student-Led NVivo Workshops

This paper explores peer-to-peer teaching and learning at a postgraduate level using the example of two NVivo workshops run by geography postgraduate students. The workshops took place in March and May 2011 and feedback was collected from all attendees in both sessions. This paper aims to provide a practical guide to organizing and facilitating such an informal workshop on the NVivo software for postgraduate students based on the outcomes of the two workshops. Hints and tips for others considering running similar events are provided based on the feedback received following the sessions and reflections on the organizers experiences.     

Engaging with the (Un)familiar: Field Teaching in a Multi-Campus Teaching Environment

Field trips have long been central to geography, but have been subject to assessment of the role of the ‘field’ in teaching. At the same time, academics face barriers to running field trips. Distance education and enhanced educational access for non-metropolitan students represented such an obstacle at an Australian university. These obstacles were taken as an opportunity to draw on the regional nature of the students and staff to enhance teaching goals, run critically informed field trips by and manage academic workloads. We evaluate the field trips by conducting surveys and interviews with students and tutors, and as an example of innovation within constraints.     

Sustainability Science Partnerships in Concept and in Practice: a Guide to a New Curriculum from a European Perspective

This paper makes the case for advancing sustainability science partnerships (SSPs) both within universities and through innovative means of integrating universities with external public‐private and civil sectors. It links the basic principles of sustainable development with an emerging science of cooperative learning that connects researchers to a wide range of partners. SSPs are specifically designed to be transformational through becoming active agents for societal change. Universities play a special role here because they can act both as communication networks and as laboratories for developing the capability to design and manage SSPs in the creative transition to sustainability. It is gratifying to note that these ideas are beginning to emerge in a number of universities, with European examples being highlighted in this paper. Further steps towards introducing full‐blooded SSPs across the university spectrum are suggested.     

From Hawaii to Glasgow: The International Network for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education (INLT) Five Years On

This paper examines and reflects on the activities of the International Network for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education (INLT) from its founding at the Association of American Geographers' Annual Conference in Hawaii in 1999 to the post-International Geographical Congress workshop in Glasgow five years later. It provides a context and introduction to the following six papers, which resulted from the Glasgow workshop. It is suggested that, despite some of the proposals in Hawaii proving over-ambitious, several other projects have emerged and the INLT continues largely to meet the goals and purposes set out in 1999. Although the desire of the INLT to move beyond its Anglo-American and Australasian origins largely remains a challenge to be met, the INLT has established itself as a valuable forum for the geography higher education community to identify and reflect on similarities and differences in national practices, to engage in debate virtually and face-to-face on issues concerned with learning and teaching, and to bring geographers from different countries to work together on educational projects.     

旅游管理专业(本科)的课程体系和教学方法探讨

旅游管理专业(本科)是新修订的专业目录中唯一的旅游高等教育专业.本文主要探讨了在四年制本科教育的框架下,旅游管理专业的课程体系及其教学方法.     

影响旅游英语教学质量诸因素的思考与对策

本文着力分析了影响旅游英语教学质量的因素,提出提高旅游教学质量的构想.     

Technological Learning and Innovation in China in the Context of Globalization

A team of China- and U.S.-based geographers develops the theoretical concept of "learning field" to advance the study of technological innovation through networking under conditions of ongoing globalization. The concept is applied in a survey of ca. 100 firms in the Zhengzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, located in a relatively underdeveloped region of China. The findings emphasize the different patterns and challenges confronting companies of differing size, property rights, and R&D capacities, as well as the variable extent to which technological learning is based on local versus global linkages and networking. Key elements involved in successful technological upgrading (in addition to networking) are identified, including market structure, competitive strategies, and capital. Also examined are the roles played by geographic, relational, and institutional factors in providing opportunities for learning and cooperation among firms in an industrial district. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D21, D83, O31, P20. 8 figures, 3 tables, 67 references.     

晚清"古学复兴":中国旧学纳入近代新知体系之尝试

章太炎、刘师培等人在清末“保存国粹”、“复兴古学”的过程中,开始对中国古代学术进行初步整理,肇始了对中国学术遗产进行发掘、梳理、研究和整合之工作。以西方新知、新理、新法整理中国传统旧籍,发明中国旧学之新义,是晚清学术演进之必然趋势。以新知阐释旧学,以中学比附西学,以近代学科体系界定中国旧学,是晚清学者整理中国旧学之基本思路。正是在对中国传统学术不断进行整理和整合的过程中,中国传统学术开始转变其固有形态,逐步融入近代西学新知体系之中。     

瑜伽走进高校体育课探讨

本文论述了高校体育课程中增设瑜伽内容的意义,分析了开设这一课程的有利因素和制约因素,并指出促进这一课程在高校体育课程中开设的思路与建议。     

国外旅游目的地研究综述 --基于Tourism Management近10年文章

为了对国外旅游目的地研究的成果和最新动态有一个清晰的了解,笔者检索了Tourism Management(《旅游管理》)近10年来的相关文献(不包括会议记录和书评)共32篇,对不同年份发表的论文数量及作者的国别作了统计,并分析了这些文献研究的主要内容,包括旅游目的地的概念、旅游目的地形象、旅游目的地的管理与发展、旅游目的地与居民的关系及旅游者与旅游目的地的关系等,最后展望旅游目的地研究的趋势。     

谈对智力的培养与物理知识教学的结合

物理学是一门基础科学,它研究力、热、电、磁、光等方面的规律。从分子、原子到原子内部,从日月星辰到整个宇宙,物理学研究的对象无所不及。因此,物理知识的范围很广。智力以知识为基础,是知识的运用。因此,对智力的培养应同物理知识教学结合起来。     

晚清议改科举新探

废除科举并非清统治者的初衷。迄道光至光绪,长达半个多世纪,议改科举的主流,多以讲求实学、增广科目、取材标准多样化为基本取向,希望以老树嫁接新枝的方法,激活科举制生机。朝臣疆吏们先后至少有18份以上要求增设科目的改革方案,正式奏呈清廷,最高执政者亦并多次谕令部院大臣讨论议复。由于整个统治集团的观念更新滞后,礼部等机构恪守夷夏之大防,阻挠变制,总理衙门鉴于反对派势大而采取等待姿态,经济特科的举办又一波三折,以虎头蛇尾告终,使得科举制失去了逐步内在更新的最佳时机,后起者不得不考虑除旧布新的彻底变革。     

加涅信息加工学习理论在对外汉语课堂教学中的应用

对外汉语教学较之传统学科发展相对较晚,有待进一步建设。在这一完善过程中,教育学、心理学的学科理论对其发展有着很好的推动作用。笔者取其一点,着力讨论加涅信息加工学习理论在汉语课堂教学中的应用。