John Bradbeer

Barriers to Interdisciplinarity: Disciplinary Discourses and Student Learning.

Interdisciplinary study is hard to achieve and to sustain. Students are faced with major challenges in working in and across several disciplines. These difficulties reflect both contrasting disciplinary cognitive structures and the distinctive cultures that have emerged in different disciplines. This paper draws on the work of Kolb and others to clarify some of these problems and to suggest ways of helping students to become more self-aware as learners and more capable of effecting these moves between disciplines.

Problem‐based learning and fieldwork: a better method of preparation?

Abstract This paper suggests that geographers could profitably employ problem‐based learning (PBL) in the preparation of students for fieldclasses. Following a brief review of recent issues and contributions to teaching and learning on fieldclasses, the paper examines the characteristics of PBL and its application in other disciplines, especially medicine. It is argued that PBL encourages active and deep learning in students and can readily be applied to fieldwork preparation. A case study of such an application to a second‐year undergraduate fieldclass is given.

Professional Standards and Values for University Teachers of Geography

There is an apocryphal story of an academic developer saying that the only distinguishing characteristic of university teachers as a profession is their total lack of professionalism. It is a tale I use regularly in my academic development work and it usually raises a wry smile among the academics with whom I work. But is it true, and indeed is the claim of university teachers to be professionals, as opposed to an occupational group, justified? As I write, in the United Kingdom the Higher Education Academy has produced a set of standards for university teachers and is consulting on these (HEA, 2006). There are similar debates around the world. In this editorial I want to look at aspects of this debate and at what professional standards and values might be applicable to university teachers of geography.

Control and independence strayegies for large geography classes

Abstract A variety of innovations from UK institutions are described that tackle the problems of larger geography classes and more students. Each is set out according to a common format. The introduction sets these UK innovations in the particular context of developments in North American higher education and in the wider context of control and independence strategies for dealing with higher student: staff ratios.

Society, nature and place: a final year core course in contemporary philosophical debates in geography

Abstract This paper outlines some of the issues in curriculum and in teaching method for a final year core course in the philosophies of contemporary geography. In particular, the use of tutorless groups as a way of coping with large numbers of students and to encourage students in deep learning is discussed.

Describing numerical data in words

In a world often described as awash with data, the ability to summarize it in words, to reduce its complexity and to explain its meaning enables you to turn information into usable knowledge. It is an invaluable and eminently transferable skill. This Directions describes the main steps to be taken and gives an example of data description using the French election data from 2002. First it is worth thinking about what words can do that numbers cannot. Some individuals have the ability to look at a table of data and see immediately the patterns and the relationships that are there. Many other individuals lack this ability or perhaps have never been taught how to do this with any degree of confidence. For these people, having the data described to them—with the main patterns and relationships identified in words—is a major aid to understanding. If you are able to look at data and see patterns and relationships you need to remember that many others cannot do this and you will need to develop your skill at describing and explaining data in words to communicate with them. If you find numerical data puzzling, then trying to describe them in words is a very effective way of helping to build personal understanding. There are probably two main reasons why you would be trying to describe numerical data in words: