Susan Vajoczki

Problem-Based Learning in Geography: Towards a Critical Assessment of Its Purposes, Benefits and Risks.

This paper makes a critical assessment of problem-based learning (PBL) in geography. It assesses what PBL is, in terms of the range of definitions in use and in light of its origins in specific disciplines such as medicine. It considers experiences of PBL from the standpoint of students, instructors and managers (e.g. deans), and asks how well suited this method of learning is for use in geography curricula, courses and assignments. It identifies some ‘best practices in PBL’, as well as some useful sources for those seeking to adopt PBL in geography. It concludes that PBL is not a teaching and learning method to be adopted lightly, and that if the chances of successful implementation are to be maximized, careful attention to course preparation and scenario design is essential. More needs to be known about the circumstances in which applications of PBL have not worked well and also about the nature of the inputs needed from students, teachers and others to reap its benefits.

Professional development in teaching and learning for early career academic geographers: Contexts, practices and tensions

This paper provides a review of the practices and tensions informing approaches to professional development for early career academic geographers who are teaching in higher education. We offer examples from Britain, Canada, Nigeria and the USA. The tensions include: institutional and departmental cultures; models that offer generic and discipline-specific approaches; the credibility of alternative settings for professional development in teaching and learning; the valuing of professional development and of teaching in academic systems of reward and recognition; and the challenges of balancing professional and personal life. We summarize concepts of good practice and suggest opportunities for future research.

The contextual nature of university-wide curriculum change

ABSTRACT We explored the relationships between social contexts and factors that promoted and inhibited curriculum change at two universities. Thirty interviews were analysed using a general inductive approach to identify factors and forces in three social contexts (lecturer, departmental, and institutional). Curriculum change was characterised by six forces: ownership, resources, identity, leadership, students, and quality assurance, each composed of factors that differed in their direction (enabling or inhibiting) and/or intensity (strong or weak). Academic developers should find the approach and lessons learned useful for planning interventions and identifying where they may encounter resistance or enablers in the process of change.

UNDERWATER DISSOLUTIONAL PITTING ON DOLOSTONES, LAKE HURON-GEORGIAN BAY, ONTARIO

This paper examines underwater dissolutional pitting along the dolomitic shorelines of the Bruce Peninsula around Tobermory, Ontario. Research was conducted from the modern spray and swash zone to depths of 25 m at four sites: Little Cove, Big Tub, Marr Lake, and Cove Island. The morphology of sample pits was measured, rock samples were collected, and comprehensive water analyses were completed. The most striking result to emerge from this work was a strong positive relationship (r2 = .93) between pit depth and water depth. Variations in the physical lithology obscured all other relationships between the morphological parameters that were studied. The detailed variations of lithology between sites and between water depths at a given site are difficult to quantify and were not attempted in this project. The Tobermory sites are distinct because they have been both totally emerged and totally submerged during the last 12,000 years. A model to explain pit genesis including initiation and enlargement incorporating this post glacial lake level history is proposed. [Key words: karren, pitting, littoral, dolostone.]