J.A. van der Schee

The International Challenge of More Thinking Through Geography

Geography is a brilliant, exciting subject but you would not say that when you look in some classrooms. Often pupils are bored and demotivated. The question is how to make geography lessons more interesting. In the 1990s the Thinking Through Geography (TTG) group, comprising teachers and lecturers in geographical education and based in north-east England, developed some successful strategies to stimulate pupils to think through geography. Some years later the ideas reached the Netherlands. A survey showed that geography teachers in the Netherlands like the innovation – a liking that grows with familiarity. Although there may be a discussion about the usability of specific strategies, more Thinking Through Geography should be an international challenge.

Geographical Education an Citizenship Education

In the Editorial of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education (2001, vol. 10, no. 3), Stoltman and Lidstone urged us to take ‘the initiative to position geography and environmental education in our countries to meet the challenges of citizenship education’. They asked us to read the release of the International Education Association’s landmark study on Civic Education which should awaken geographers and environmental educators to rethink education:

Effects of teaching with mysteries on students’ geographical thinking skills

Thinking Through Geography (TTG) strategies are popular in secondary education. Geography teachers see these strategies to be powerful to stimulate thinking geographically. However, empirical evidence is scarce. Based on a quasi-experimental design, effects of mysteries, one of the more famous TTG strategies, were examined on students’ geographical thinking in terms of their skills to relate phenomena. A multilevel regression analysis showed that students who used mysteries in geography lessons reported significantly more correct geographical relationships than students who attended the regular curriculum. We conclude that a mystery can be an effective TTG strategy for the development of students’ geographical thinking skills. Improvements of the pedagogy of using mysteries in Geography lessons are discussed.

The Effect of Student Freedom of Choice in Learning Map Skills

The acquisition of skills is an important part of many new curricula in secondary education. According to these curricula, students have to acquire the ability to identify, to classify, to relate and to explain phenomena in order to be able to participate in various social and life situations. The general cognitive skills have their domain specific translation in geography in the different stages of map use: map reading, map analysis and map interpretation. Earlier research at the Free University in Amsterdam concerned the ability of students to use different types of map skills and the effects of some computer programmes which systematically train students in map skills acquisition. This paper reports a recent study which investigates the effect of the degree of freedom of choice, which first year students in secondary education have during their training, on the learning of map skills. It is recommended that students are given the opportunity themselves to decide upon the sequence in which they will per...

Future geographies and geography education

Futute geography education is discussed from different perspectives: the discipline, the student and the teacher

Digital Geography Education in the Twenty-First Century: Needs and Opportunities

The introduction of geospatial technologies is changing geography education very fast. Google Earth, web atlases and many location based services are available from the Internet and offer the opportunity to study almost every place in the world anytime anywhere. This opens up a great perspective for geography education in a way not known before. Nevertheless also in geography life is not just a bed of roses. The introduction of geospatial technologies is not always simple, due to technical problems and fast changing devices, a lack of experience in teaching with geospatial technologies and a huge amount of information that may prevent learners to see the wood for the trees. However, the advantages of using geospatial technologies in geography education far outweigh the problems if geographical thinking is involved. This contribution discusses briefly the needs and opportunities of digital geography education in the twenty-first century.