Educating geographers in Spain: geography teaching renewal by implementing the European Higher Education Area

This article discusses the current state of the geography discipline in Spanish Universities after putting into action the European Higher Education Area. After decades of geography teaching, following theoretical and expository discourse models, the so-called Bologna Process has been a great opportunity to reflect what geography should be taught, how geography should be taught and why geography should be taught. Aspects such as competences, employability, learning methodologies, assessment, Geographical Information Systems domain have been incorporated into the renewal of geography teaching in Spanish higher education, which has contributed to the strengthening of geography in a context of geospatial technologies revolution and public awareness of spatial challenges.     

Teaching Geography to Non-geographers at Glasgow Caledonian University

This paper discusses the teaching of geography to 'non-geographers' at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU). GCU is one of the so-called 'new' universities in the UK and it shares with many of these institutions a mission to facilitate access to groups that have traditionally been under-represented in higher education. Human geography is one of the six subject area streams within the interdisciplinary social sciences degree programme, although geographical subject matter is taught in many other degree programmes, in each of GCU's three faculties. The arrangements for teaching human geography at GCU present pedagogical challenges for staff. Means to address these problems have been implemented. In this case study, it is argued that the experience of teaching human geography to 'non-geographers' at GCU may be of more general significance to the discipline, to the teaching of geography in both 'old' and 'new' universities and to those responsible for the delivery of mainstream geography degree programmes.     

人文地理学课程建设与高校跨世纪教学改革

人文地理学与自然地理学构成一级学科地理科学。人文地理学课程建设在高校跨世纪教学改革中具有重要意义。因此要充分展现人文地理学的教育功能,构建高校多层次人文地理学课程体系;充分利用人文地理学社会针对性,全方位建设地理专业应用人文地理学课程群体;充分体现人文地理学课程的区域性,建设不同空间尺度的区域人文地理学课程系统;全面概括充分完善人文地理学理论,建设各专业通用的理论人文地理学课程;充分发挥人文地理的应用优势,建设各专业实用的应用人文地理学课程。     

Teaching economic geography in UK higher education institutions

Abstract

This paper examines how the changes in the last decade in economic geography have been reflected in the courses taught in the UK and assesses the impact of recent changes in teaching styles and methods on how the subject is taught. It summarises the findings from a survey of 50 UK Geography Departments. The paper covers three main topics: the significance of economic geography in UK degrees courses; the characteristics of introductory economic geography courses; and the issues involved in the teaching of economic geography.     

Professional Standards and Values for University Teachers of Geography

This paper introduces the theme of 'teaching geography to non-geographers'. It is set against the context of learning and teaching with the 'Other' in geography. At the outset a working definition of a 'non-geographer' is provided. The resource and pedagogical implications arising from teaching geography to non-geographers are then outlined. Finally, the contributions to this broader debate from the five case studies that comprise this JGHE symposium are summarised.     

Introductory texts in biogeography

Abstract

Only a view of extreme pessimism or arrogance discounts the knowledge already acquired by those who enter the study of geography in higher education. The changes which occur in the teaching of school geography should be of considerable interest to those who teach geographical and related studies in higher education. This paper outlines and assesses the significance of the major changes which have occurred in geography teaching in schools in England and Wales in the past two decades. It also seeks to identify some of the influences which are likely to shape such teaching in the future.     

Teaching mathematics in geography degrees: Motivation,necessities and approach

Abstract

Within the constraints of viewing geography as an applied discipline with a large number of arts‐based students, the primary problem of teaching mathematics in a geography degree is argued to be one of contending the motivation for a symbolic and analytical approach. This paper explores ways in which motivation for mathematics can be impressed on students and then discusses those areas of mathematics necessary in geography. The final section explores an applied approach to mathematics teaching based on the concept of systems.     

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.     

The Relationship Between Teaching and Research in Australian Geography

This paper considers how higher education geography is a discipline that can make a significant contribution to addressing inequality and engaging with the agenda for social change. It adopts the view that the teaching of geography can promote social transformation through the development of knowledge, skills and values in students that encourage social justice and equity. The paper explores how teaching about social transformation is closely interlinked with teaching for social transformation and considers some of the pedagogical approaches that might be used to achieve these. It considers how the lack of diversity of higher education geography teachers impacts on these issues before moving on to consider how the nature of different higher education systems supports or constrains geographers' abilities to teach for social transformation. Finally, the paper ends by asking individuals and geography departments to consider their commitment to teaching for social transformation.     

Problems of Geographical Education in the USSR

Geography education in the Soviet Union is found to lag behind advances in geography as a research discipline. Courses in both elementary and secondary schools and at the college and university level are overloaded with factual material at the expense of theoretical problems and general concepts. An essential requisite for improving the content of geography education is better training of geography teachers. Soviet geography teachers are now being trained mainly in the combined geography-biology faculties of teachers colleges. Combined training in more than one teaching discipline is essential because a teacher trained in geography alone would not have a full teaching load of 18 hours a week in most schools. However, the geography-biology combination does not appear to be optimal because the emphasis in biology is no longer on botany and zoology, as in the past, but on human physiology and genetics, with less relevance to geography. It is recommended that geography as a teaching discipline be combined with other subjects of instruction having greater relevance to geography teaching, possibly chemistry, physical education or foreign languages. Less emphasis on fact-loaded regional courses and more stress on systematic courses is recommended, together with training in mathematical techniques.     

抗战时期对西南历史地理的研究

抗战时期,随国民政府还都重庆,大批史地学者和教学科研机构云集西南。他们应西南开发的需要,积极开展西南历史地理的教学、科研工作,并在对西南历史政治地理、西南历史民族地理、西南历史经济地理、西南历史自然地理等方面的研究上取得不同程度的进展。西南历史地理研究的特点主要表现在内容、方法、目的三个方面。     

Internationalising Learning and Teaching: A European experience

This paper focuses on experiences with international learning and teaching in a European (ERASMUS) programme on geography and gender during the period 1990-1998. This programme forms an example of collaborative work in which the author and colleagues experimented with an array of models to bring geography students and teachers of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds together. International learning and teaching is a confrontation with diversity. Diversity in language, in the mastery of English and the resulting hierarchies, in learning and teaching cultures and in defining geography form both challenges and opportunities to profit. In this paper the author will expound on the different strategies to deal with linguistic and cultural differences and to break down hierarchies. Furthermore the opportunities to "use" the differences as learning and teaching contexts will be discussed. Geography is a discipline concerning diversity. Direct contact between persons with different cultural backgrounds can form an efficient, effective and stimulating method to learn about differences in geographies and in teaching methods.     

Virtual Geographies and the Use of the Internet for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education

Despite the plethora of teaching materials that are available on the Internet to enhance geography higher education, few assessments of the effectiveness of these materials exist. This symposium collects papers that provide guidelines for using the Internet effectively for teaching geography. Students must learn how to use the Internet effectively to promote learning; instructors need to learn how to use the Internet effectively to promote good practice in higher education; instructors need to learn how to use the Internet effectively to enhance learning; and higher educators need to learn how to use the Internet effectively not only in traditional classroom settings, but in new, non-traditional settings such as those used for distance learning. These papers provide some assessment of these various aspects of using the Internet for teaching geography in higher education.     

Gender and geography in the Netherlands: from separation to integration

Abstract

This article reports on the development of feminist geography in the Netherlands in the past forty years. In response to critical feminist students, feminist geography originally developed in a strategy of separation with the appointment of university lecturers specialized in ‘women’s studies’, the introduction of elective courses and research projects, and the creation of national networks. Gender is currently more and more integrated in core geography teaching and mainstream geographical research and separate networks are dissolved. Although feminist geographers in the Netherlands are successful in teaching, publishing and acquisition of research funding, gender issues and perspectives are still not firmly rooted in geography curricula and research programs. Integration is highly dependent on the feminist commitment of individual lecturers and researchers and gender perspectives are at risk of marginalisation or disappearance. Feminist geographers in the Netherlands must still be vigilant to preserve the achievements of forty years of Dutch feminist geography.     

Pestalozzi, Fellenberg and British nineteenth-century geographical education

The impact that Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827) and Philipp Emanuel Fellenberg (1771–1844) had upon nineteenth-century European geographical education and ideas has long been recognised. Their influence upon British geography teaching has, however, been little explored, despite the work already done on the general impact of Pestalozzianism and Fellenbergianism on British education. Using the arguments of nineteenth-century educational theorists such as Compayre and Spencer, this study argues that Pestalozzian educationists such as Phillip Pullen and Charles Mayo in England helped to change the way that geography was taught to middle-class children. A case study of teaching practices at a Pestalozzian institution in Worksop, Nottinghamshire shows how changes in geographical education were encouraged by Pestalozzian ideas on the teaching of geography and the relationship of the subject to other disciplines including topography, natural history and geology.     

我国中学人文——经济地理教育的演变

本文由以下五个方面阐述了我国中学人文-经济地理教育的演变:1.课程设置的变化;2.人地关系理论思维的转变;3.知识结构的变化;4.思想品德教育的深化:5.教学思想的转变。主要变化是课程设置不单独开设人文-经济地理课程,而将其内容与自然地理综合到区域地理和系统地理之中,以人地关系协调论的观点指导课程和教材;以环境、资源、人口问题为中心组织区域地理和系统地理的教学内容,加强爱国主义、国情教育、国际意识、环境意识、全球观念的思想教育;注意发展学生的智力和能力。     

Suzanne MacKenzie Memorial LectureConceptually unclad: feminist geography and Aboriginal peoples*

This paper argues that feminist geography can provide some useful lessons in an attempt to increase Aboriginal peoples' representation in geography. It asks the question: How can we use the example of feminist geography to think about a geography that is more inclusive of Aboriginal people? The paper focuses on the issues of content in teaching, drawing on examples from urban and social geography, and on methodological challenges, especially the issue of reflexivity. Feminist geographer Suzanne Mackenzie argued that an emerging feminist geography left the discipline ‘conceptually unclad’, challenging scholars to consider new theoretical frameworks and new perspectives. I argue that emphasising the geographies of Aboriginal people also enriches geography, including feminist geography.     

Introducing humanistic geography through fieldwork

Abstract

One challenge of teaching humanistic geography is to encourage students’ responses to landscapes in ways which may be different from their previous experience. Conventional wisdom about successful field teaching suggests that students should be prepared beforehand with the skills and techniques to be employed. The author questions how appropriate this is in humanistic geography and the article describes and evaluates an alternative approach using fieldwork as the introductory activity.     

Names and their meanings: teaching cultural geography with the poem the names of migrant workers

ABSTRACT

This paper introduces a new teaching method, poetry, into the geography classroom, accompanied by an out-of-class discussion on a blog, and finds that its effects are rather different from those of traditional teaching methods, as it allows new perspectives on instructional content related to migrant workers’ lives and identities in China. The method enables students to analyse content from the perspective of cultural geography, in which poetry acts as an art form that connects people’s identities and social spaces. On the basis of this, we also provide some suggestions to engage students in critical analysis of poetry, from the perspective of cultural geography, through interactive online platforms such as blogs.