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.     

Challenges to geography's public and practitioners

Abstract

Economic geography is in a state of flux. This paper argues that there is a need to develop a relevant and theoretically informed economic geography. Some of the more difficult challenges facing both teachers and students are outlined, and the author describes how such difficulties have been tackled through an Enterprise in Higher Education initiative centering on innovative assessment procedures for group research projects. The project is evaluated in terms of potential gains to both staff and students.     

Embedding Research-Based Learning Early in the Undergraduate Geography Curriculum

This article discusses attempts to revive gender in the context of the geography curriculum at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The reluctance of Dutch geography/-ers to embrace gender geography is related to the way in which the discipline has been understood and practised in the past and by whom as well as to the neglect of gender issues at the societal level. Both trajectories may account for a lack of awareness by students and staff of the relevance of gender to Dutch geography.     

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.     

从百期《人文地理》看中国文化地理学的发展脉络

《人文地理》从创刊至百期,一直关注中国文化地理学研究的发展。正是依靠《人文地理》所搭建的平台,在《人文地理》的扶持、关爱及帮助下,我国文化地理学的发展才取得今日尽管依旧弱小,但也能悄然展放、显现美丽的局面。从过往100期的历程可以明了的是,它作为一个温床、一片实验田和一个跳板,孕育了包括文化地理在内的众多中国人文地理各分支学科的发展,也鼓舞、扶持了众多年轻的莘莘学子从稚嫩、从恐惧、从胆怯到充满自信、到成长,进而走向成熟。从这样的角度看,《人文地理》不啻又肩负了导师、领路人的角色。本文通过百期《人文地理》中文化地理学研究的回顾,包括载文数量、文献作者和文献内容的分析,梳理了近二十年来国内文化地理学研究的发展脉络。文化地理学研究正处在蓬勃发展的重要阶段,在社会发展与学科发展的新形势下,有必要继续在《人文地理》的领航下,借助新的理论视角和方法,依靠与国际研究的接轨和对话,体现中国文化地理学研究的区域特色,促进包括文化地理学在内的中国人文地理学科的整体突破。     

Co-learning: Re-linking Research and Teaching in Geography

Focusing on Digital Worlds, a first-year geography blended learning course at the University of Auckland, this paper gives voice to the students, examining how they perceived e-learning versus traditional learning mechanisms; how e-learning mechanisms have affected their learning behaviour; and why certain e-learning mechanisms offered in the course were more appealing than others. It demonstrates that students' views are determined by their individual learning styles and how they perceive the university experience. Information and communication technologies were recognized to provide complementary learning benefits, especially when other factors inhibited learning, but traditional mechanisms such as lectures were still greatly valued.     

文化锋面的地理学诠释

文化锋面是指两种不同特质的文化相遇所形成的文化过渡现象,是两种社会气团之间的交错带。文化锋面具有不均质性、动态性、复杂性和地域性等特点。根据成因、形态、要素和演化状况等标准,文化锋面可分为许多不同的类型。与文化过渡区(带)、文化边界(界面)等概念相比,文化锋面不仅形象通俗,而且表达准确,内涵丰富。文化锋面和传统文化地理学主题具有密切的联系,但又相互独立,其研究对文化地理学具有重大的理论与现实意义。     

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.     

‘The races and conditions of men’: women in nineteenth-century geography school texts in the United States

Geography schoolbooks published in the United States were important opinion makers in the nineteenth century, often joining the Bible as the main source of information about the world outside North America. The texts examined here are noteworthy for their static and pejorative treatment of non-American cultures and may be seen as playing a key role in forming isolationist and chauvinist American public opinion. They also played a role in reinforcing ideas about the proper niche for women in American society, even though it may seem at first that these books could not have had much influence on ideas about American women because they barely mentioned women, almost always relegating them to illustrations and captions. The few women depicted were usually characterized as ‘poor souls’ in distant lands worthy of pity. We discuss the national political context in which these writers (many of whom were women) were producing geography school texts, the social roles they were fulfilling by reinforcing such limited images of ‘foreign’ women, and the sources they may have used in their research. Furthermore, we demonstrate that much more could have been drawn ethnographically from the illustrations of women. The images of women in these geography schoolbooks reinforced the marginalization of women, particularly non-white and non-western women.     

新文化地理学视角下的女性主义地理学研究

在文化地理学研究向新文化地理学转向、女性主义运动蓬勃发展、女性主义理论在跨学科过程中日益完善的背景下,西方女性主义地理学从女性经验、性别权利、女性内部差异入手,提供了以女性主义视角分析地理学问题的新的发展领域,并发展出质疑与抵抗男性权威话语的学科范式。本文依循女性主义地理学中对身体、工作、空间和国家/民族等主要议题的探讨,梳理西方学者的研究进展,以期对本土研究提供有益借鉴。     

China and Geography in the 21st Century: A Cultural (Geographical) Revolution?

A noted Singapore-based cultural geographer and specialist on Asia reviews the recent emergence of cultural geographic research on and within China and the implications of China's rise for the study of 21st century cultural geography more broadly. She identifies six major issues modern China is confronting that, when addressed from a cultural geographical perspective, may both enhance an understanding of the country and reshape the practice of cultural geography as a subdiscipline: agricultural reform, economic reform, urban change, rural-urban migration and related social inequalities, the changing family structure, and environmental change. The author argues that if China's cultural geography is to help the subdiscipline at large develop a more international and inclusive approach, it must be driven by questions of significance in China, yield constructive answers of relevance to China, and at the same time derive theoretical ideas that diversify the collective geographical imagination.     

中国人才时期与人才地理研究

本文在分析大量人才资料的基础上,分阶段阐明了中国人才的历史时期,侧重研究了重点人才时期的主要特征和人地籍贯的地域分布,并探讨了我国人才地理的基本规律.     

“地方”概念对人文地理学各分支意义的辨识

地方是文化地理学的核心概念之一.当文化地理学与其他人文地理学分支交叉时, “地方”则为其他人文地理学分支提供了分析的基础.本文结合英美地理学刊物中若干涉及“地方”研究的文章,挖掘了地方的概念和内涵,以期对人文地理学诸分支提供学术支撑.本文的结论是:地方研究可支撑经济地理学文化转向和制度转向的研究;支撑区域地理学地方营销和旅游地理学旅游目的地营销的研究;支撑城市地理学公众参与式城市规划方案的制定;支撑政治地理学的选区策略制定.因此, “地方”作为文化地理学的核心概念,其存在意义是为其他学科提供学术营养,同时,文化地理学对地方的研究也可以使得文化地理学的社会应用能力更强.     

21世纪的中国与中国地理学:一场文化(地理)革命?

一位著名的新加坡文化地理学家,兼亚洲问题研究专家从更广的视角回顾了近年出现的中国国内外地理学者关于中国文化地理的研究,以及中国的崛起对21世纪文化地理学的影响。作者指出了中国目前正面临的六大问题,并认为如果从文化地理学的视角来看这些问题,不仅可以加深对中国的了解,还可以重塑文化地理学作为分支学科的实用性形象。这六大问题分别是:农业改革、经济改革、城市变迁、城乡移民和与其密切相关的社会不公平、不断改变的家庭结构和环境变化。作者认为,如果中国文化地理学希望最大限度地帮助本学科开发一个更加国际化的,更为包容的研究方法,就要考虑到中国面临的这些重大问题,给出有建设性的答案,并导出新的理论观念,使地理学的理论思维更加多样化。