A Research-Led,Inquiry-Based Learning Experiment: Classic Landforms of Deglaciation,Glen Etive,Scottish Highlands

This paper reports an adaptation of a classroom-based, traditionally taught module to both facilitate field-based knowledge acquisition and contribute towards research. The module enabled students, through a combination of new research and co-learning, to achieve the original classroom-based learning outcomes. Students engaged enthusiastically with the research project, developing a deeper learning style as demonstrated by improved student performance and a sense of ownership of the learning experience. The study concludes that field-centred, inquiry-based learning draws heavily upon staff resources but is an effective means of facilitating teaching and research in tandem.     

关于对中学数学教学的几点思考

新课程标准的一个重要理念是“以人为本”,就是要求教师在教学行为上和学生的学习方式上发生根本性的转变。这种理念的实施往往靠课堂教学来体现,而课堂教学是一种师生双边参与的动态变化的过程,教师是学生学习的引导者、帮助者、合作者,应向学生提供真正理解知识社会的钥匙,引导其学习,促使其终身学习。教师的“教”应该为学生的“学”服务,课堂教学应淡化教师教的痕迹,突出学生学的过程。在教学过程中仍是有很多问题和观点有待思考。     

Foundation Degrees in Geography and Tourism: A Critical Reflection on Student Experiences and the Implications for Undergraduate Degree Courses

Over the last decade, some UK Geography Departments have diversified their range of courses to offer Foundation degrees (Fds), providing students with alternative routes through higher education (HE). These courses are delivered either offsite at further education colleges (FECs), embedded within an undergraduate programme at higher education institutions (HEIs), or by work-based learning. These pathways present students, staff and institutions with new opportunities, issues and challenges. This study examines contrasting pathways of offsite and onsite Fds in Tourism Management and Development Geography offered by two HEIs and two FECs in southwest England. The needs and experiences of Fd students are varied, related to the individual's personal and academic background, the course pathway taken, institution-specific issues and the degree of support and preparedness for HE. The contrasting academic cultures, teaching methods and assessments encountered in FECs and HEIs, and the availability of resources, raise generic and specific issues, such as confidence building and learning to become independent and autonomous learners, which challenge Geography and Tourism students during their academic careers. This study concludes that closer collaboration between the HEI and the partner FEC is necessary for Geography and Tourism courses, and highlights the need for better alignment and reinforcement of HE systems in FECs, for instance through fieldwork, and the offering effective induction and support in study skills. Finally, it is important to facilitate the smooth transitions of students ‘topping-up’ to Year 3 of an Honours degree at the parent HEI. Managers of undergraduate courses in Geography and associated subjects can also learn from the vocational and contextualized learning promoted by Fd courses and direct entry students to undergraduate courses.     

Inquiry in the Physical Geology Classroom: Supporting Students' Conceptual Model Development

This study characterizes the impact of an inquiry-based learning (IBL) module versus a traditionally structured laboratory exercise. Laboratory sections were randomized into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught using IBL pedagogical techniques and included manipulation of large-scale data-sets, use of multiple representations and a physical model and exposure to ill-constrained problems common to the Texas Gulf Coast. The control groups were taught using traditional laboratory activities. The groups were not significantly different prior to exposure. Pre/post-expressed conceptual models and final written reports indicate that the experimental group had greater increases in their conceptual model development of sand-sediment transport.     

Expectation,motivation, engagement and ownership: using student reflections in the conative and affective domains to enhance residential field courses

Residential field courses are important and should be designed and delivered to maximize their value to students, staff and institutions. In this context, we use a novel approach involving analysis of the daily affective and conative reflections of students immersed in the field course experience to better understand student engagement with fieldwork. We show that students base their field course choice on a range of factors (costs and benefits) and that these choices subsequently influence student expectations and motivation to engage with fieldwork. We also show that the motivation of students to engage with fieldwork-based learning varies from person to person and from day to day. Our findings suggest that having a more nuanced understanding of the decisions students make when deciding which field course to enrol upon would enhance our ability to design attractive, accessible and useful field courses; that having an awareness of the expectations of students around field courses would enable us to better prepare them to undertake them; and that students are more motivated when they are afforded an opportunity to work independently and perceive themselves to have ownership of their learning.     

Engaging students and maintaining quality in the era of massification: strategies and approaches for teaching large first-year courses

This article examines the nature of first-year international relations (IR) teaching in Australia. Cost pressures in the university sector have been met by economies of scale with foundational classes becoming very large, often with hundreds of students. The article critically reflects on current strategies for teaching these courses to meet the challenge of providing an engaging and high quality learning environment in large classes with widely fluctuating student entry scores, university preparedness, and educational capital and language competence. The article argues that a successful approach to improving the quality of first-year IR teaching and to accommodating the diverse learning needs of all students is to run these courses in multiple streams, with one dedicated to providing a richer, more active IR learning experience. In the era of ‘massification’, allowing students a level of guided autonomy in aligning their learning preferences with teaching methods is likely to increase engagement and motivation, thereby improving retention and degree progression.     

Not nearly enough geography! University provision for England’s pre-service primary teachers

Research into geography provision in primary initial teacher education [ITE] courses in the United Kingdom and worldwide is very limited. England educates pre-service primary teachers of 5–11 year olds to be “generalists” who teach the full range of curriculum subjects, including geography. This article identifies that the provision of teaching time for geography is low and declining in England’s primary ITE courses. It presents a picture which may not seem dissimilar in other parts of the world. With only about half of pre-service primary teachers in England having studied geography after age 14, their subject knowledge appears weak. University-based ITE subject sessions rarely extend beyond introducing them to England’s primary geography requirements and to some approaches to teaching geography. Prospective primary teachers observe and teach limited, if any, geography in primary schools. Developing their geographical understanding and teaching capability is highly challenging for tutors. There are concerns that the current situation may well decline further. Encouragement exists to develop geography provision in primary ITE but the opportunities to achieve this appear increasingly constrained as the pre-service environment moves from university-led to school-led provision. International comparative research is essential to understand better pre-service primary teachers’ learning to teach geography.     

Dancing to Different Tunes: Conveying Latin American realities to composite classes

Students are often attracted to courses about Latin America by media images of the region with their aura of danger and unpredictability. Such stereotypes must be addressed in teaching, but the means is far from clear when the participants stem from different disciplinary backgrounds and academic traditions. The method adopted here was to tackle development through discourse construction through an appreciation of positionality. This approach enabled students to draw on their respective backgrounds and experience critically; it also ensured that students appreciated the core concepts embedded in the discipline, while engaging in a challenging way with the issues raised by Latin American development.     

Birmingham Bog outdoor laboratory: potentials and possibilities for embedding field-based teaching within the undergraduate classroom

Providing cost-effective, hands-on field-based experiences to large cohorts of undergraduate students provides a core challenge for effective teaching and learning. This grand challenge is tackled through the construction of an exemplar outdoor learning environment within the Environmental Change Outdoor Laboratory (ECOLAB): Birmingham Bog (BB). Adjacent to the Geography building, the facility aims to produce a seamless, interconnected learning environment (in both space and time) that brings inaccessible fieldwork activities direct to the classroom at the time and frequency appropriate to the learning objectives. With the integration of this facility within a 3rd year undergraduate module, we explore through group interviews the ways in which BB adapted and influenced students’ engagement with lecture material, and the extent to which the approach can complement or replace current field based teaching activities. The group interviews identified how BB was considered an example of “effective learning” within the context of the wider degree programme. However, if confirmed, the value placed on residential field courses cannot be met by such campus experiences. Despite this, BB represents an increasingly fertile space for deeper stimulation and innovative ways of learning; diversifying pedagogical techniques and enabling students to re-engage with lecture content.     

Teaching ethics when working with geocoded data: a novel experiential learning approach

Research ethics are not the favourite subject of most undergraduate geography students. However, in the light of increasing mixed-methods research, as well as research using geocodes, it is necessary to train students in the field of ethics. Experiential learning is an approach to teaching that is potentially suitable for teaching ethics. The aim of this article is to discuss how the experiential learning process in a course on Ethics & GPS-tracking contributed to the ethical awareness of third-year undergraduate geography students. We conducted a qualitative study in which we held four focus group discussions with two cohorts of students (2016 and 2017). We explored the students’ views on the learning environment in relation to ethics in GPS-based and mixed-methods research. Our findings show how an informal learning environment and collaborative learning in a small group contributed to deep understanding of research ethics. These aspects of the learning environment are tied to an ethical framework that consists of three dimensions: (1) the ethics of collaborative research between staff and students; (2) the ethics of privacy raised by the geo-technology adopted in this research case study; and (3) the ethics of the research process with respect to informed consent and data storage.     

Developing trainee teacher practice with geographical information systems (GIS)

There is general agreement that geographical information systems (GIS) have a place within the geography classroom; they offer the potential to support geographical learning, exploring real-world problems through student-centred learning, and developing spatial thinking. Despite this, teachers often avoid engaging with GIS and research suggests that the lack of GIS training in initial teacher education is partially to blame. In response to this, this article explores how 16 trainee geography teachers were supported to develop their use of GIS across a one-year, postgraduate teacher training course in England. The project, an interpretive case study underpinned by a constructivist epistemology, used questionnaires and interviews to elicit trainees’ understandings of the nature of GIS, and to explore their engagement with it across their training year. Results suggest a programme of embedded training developed in trainees a more nuanced understanding of the value of GIS for supporting geographical learning and, thereby, increased self-efficacy towards and engagement with it in their teaching practice. However, not all trainees embraced GIS as a pedagogical tool and the study raised several key issues for geography teacher education, including the knowledge culture within schools in the teacher training partnership, and the importance of trainee self-efficacy towards GIS.     

Flipping and still learning: experiences of a flipped classroom approach for a third-year undergraduate human geography course

The flipped classroom approach, a form of blended learning, is currently popular in education praxis. Initial reports on the flipped classroom include that it offers opportunities to increase student engagement and build meaningful learning and teaching experiences. In this article, we analyse teacher and student experiences of a trial flipped classroom application in a third year undergraduate human geography course that challenges conventional thinking and practice in resource management, including an explicit focus on the marginalization of Indigenous knowledges in that context. The flipped classroom trial included empirical research with teachers and students to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of this mode of learning. Interviews, focus groups, surveys, reflections and participant-observation activities were conducted before, during and after the course. The research shows that this particular implementation of the flipped classroom approach generated multiple experiences for teachers and students, some constructive, others less so. Overall, space, time and flexibility matters not only to the kinds of pedagogical tools we employed to tailor learning to students’ differing needs, but also to the kinds of learning spaces – online and offline, individually and in groups – in which learning happens.     

让学生在阅读中感受文本的美

《语文课程标准》在关于阅读教学的建议中指出”：阅读是搜集处理信息、认识世界、发展思维、获得审美体验的重要途径。”文质兼美的语文教材为我们展现了一个璀璨夺目的美的世界。我们应积极引导学生通过文本阅读感受语文之美。语文教学是真善美的统一,是以求真为基础向善的迈进;而美则是向着善的目标迈进的最佳途径。因此我认为,语文课堂教学既是一门科学,又是一门艺术。而阅读是学生应该掌握的一项基本技能。让学生在阅读中提升写作技能、开拓视界、放飞心灵,进而在享受中去阅读,这是做为一个语文教师应该做到的。合理运用阅读能够逐步培养学生探究性学习和创造性学习的能力,教师要引导学生在读中体会情感,在读中获取信患,在读中得到精神的享受。     

The Silverton Field Experience: a model geography course for achieving high-impact educational practices (HEPs)

High-Impact Educational Practices (HEPs) are a set of specific teaching and learning approaches proven effective in university education. This paper focuses on the benefits derived from utilizing three particular HEPs (inquiry-based collaborative activities, undergraduate research, and experiential learning) while teaching a snow and ice field course titled “Silverton Field Experience.” Student evaluations and instructor feedback reinforce the notion that HEPs encourage deep learning. Deep learning is manifest through increased enthusiasm and participation as well as learning in ways that are meaningful, creative, and stimulating. In terms of pedagogy in geography, these HEPs also create an expanded sense of place and a new way to encourage spatial thinking. The HEPs outlined here are replicable in different geography sub-disciplines and among different settings in higher education and prove exciting to an audience of pedagogic researchers and teacher-practitioners in geographical education.     

Application of Problem Based Learning through Research Investigation

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching technique that uses problem-solving as the basis for student learning. The technique is student-centred with teachers taking the role of a facilitator. Its general aims are to construct a knowledge base, develop problem-solving skills, teach effective collaboration and provide the skills necessary to be a successful lifelong learner. This study evaluates the application of PBL in an undergraduate Earth Systems Interactions unit and an exercise based around the Urban Heat Island. The initial execution of PBL was mixed with many students fully engaged in the material, but others found the approach insufficiently structured. Some students were not able to adapt to the unusual challenges of PBL, partly because it was their first exposure. When asked about what they had learnt from their PBL experience, the students emphasized the technical rather than the problem-solving skills. In subsequent years, a more directed project-based learning approach was introduced, which improved students' overall satisfaction and performances.     

试论高校地理专业人文地理学的教学改革

依据7所高校地理专业课程设置的分析,可以发现我国高校地理专业人文地理学课程体系基本形成,《人文地理学》、《经济地理学》、《中国地理》、《世界地理》等课程成为人文地理学的核心课程。各高校根据自身特点,通过多种方式和途径,开设了涉及目前人文地理学发展较为成熟领域的课程。《人文地理学》的课程性质决定了它在人文地理学课程群中的总括地位,该课程的教学重点应该在于阐述人文地理学的基本理论、基本方法。课程性质和教学重点对教材提出了要求,我国不同时期出版的教材各具特色,但随着高校地理专业人文地理学课程体系日趋合理,《人文地理学》教材应与《人文地理学》课程性质和功能相一致。人文地理学外业实践教学不可或缺,但目前仍较薄弱,有待加强。人文地理学外业实践教学应以人地关系地域系统理论为指导思想,选择较为典型、富有代表性的地域进行。     

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.     

'Enlivening' Development Concepts through Workshops: A case study of appropriate technology and soil conservation

In comparison with the teaching of most other geography topics, where fieldwork can be conducted relatively easily and seminars can be based on some pre-existing knowledge and first-hand experience of the issues, the range of resources and approaches available to tutors teaching the geography of development is necessarily more limited. Tutors often have to rely more heavily on 'top-down' teaching and more passive learning approaches, such as using videos, slides and lectures. While students may gain a theoretical understanding of development concepts, issues and problems, they may be left without a deeper 'experience' of such material. This paper describes a practical workshop designed to communicate to students the idea of 'appropriate technology'. The workshop enables students to actively 'experience' a development concept rather than simply understand it in theory. It tests comprehension and understanding, through the application of a concept to real examples, stimulates discussion and debate, and draws upon problem-solving and critical thinking skills.     

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.