Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Submitted by
Syamkumar.S
B.Ed Geography
N. S. S Training College,
Pandalam
INTRODUCTION
The key role of a teacher is to teach, which can be understood as meaning to
facilitate learning of some target curriculum. Teaching is therefore intimately tied
to notions of learning, and there is a sense that if students do not learn, then
whatever the teacher is doing does not deserve the label of teaching. Students can
learn skills (such as swimming the back stroke, or safely using a lathe), or attitudes
(such as valuing learning, or desiring to make a productive and positive
contribution to society), but much formal learning in schools and colleges is linked
to conceptual development. So, for example, students will be asked to learn about
the periodic classification of the elements, the notion of all living things being Inter
linked through being part of an ecosystem, the role of the banking system in
supporting entrepreneurship, the factors influencing industrial, or indeed political,
revolutions and so forth. To the lay-person, and sadly sometimes even to the
teacher, teaching may be understood as the process by which a teachers
knowledge is somehow copied into learners minds. That is, there is a folk model
of teaching, sometimes call the transfer model, which leads to learning being
discussed in terms of something sent out by the teachers which may or may not
lodge in students minds (Taber, 2009). In English, common idioms for when
teaching goes wrong are that the teaching went over the students head
(suggesting poor communication by the teacher) or went in one ear and out the
other (implying lack of ability or attention from the learner).
Innovation of didactic and learning strategies is one of the basic demands in
teacher training at all levels of education. Education systems need to combine the
development of specific knowledge and skills with generic capacities linked to
creativity, such as curiosity, intuition, critical and lateral thinking, problem solving,
experimentation, risk taking and the ability to learn from failure, use of the
one's personal experience. Taking this view, an important activity throughout the
school curriculum for both elementary and secondary schools should entail an
emphasis on a developmental sequence that takes the student from first creating
maps directly out of one's own experience and going onward from there toward
learning how the mathematics of map making results in the kind of representations
seen in classrooms and the world at large.
Studies of children's conceptions of spatial interactions indicate the progression
toward some degree of intellectual maturity in this regard is much slower than
commonly perceived. For example, concepts of political entities (towns, states,
nations, etc.), notions of boundary lines, slope, and elevation seem to commence
their emergence latein early adolescence at best. The argument that television and
various forms of virtual reality, abstractions even at their best, have expanded
student's views such that they are much more aware of the world they live in begs
further examination. It is to be regretted in this regard that Piagetian research
protocols have not been updated and applied to furthering our knowledge. The
admittedly little evidence we do have suggests that we be cautious in coming to
any conclusions about the efficacy of media, including the Internet, in promoting
geographic understandings because the emergence of mature geographic
understanding appears to be so highly dependent upon prior firsthand experiencing
of the immediate environment.
Evaluating Geographic Learning
How, then, does one evaluate geographic learning? Geographers are not in
agreement regarding the approach instruction should take and, consequently, how
to judge whether significant learning has occurred. The major traditions of
geographic inquiry, which might be used as the basic framework for making such
judgments, have been defined as the spatial tradition, the areas studies tradition,
manland tradition, and the earth science tradition. These are the traditional
categories employed in developing college curricula. Geographers more interested
in defining geography appropriate to elementary and secondary schools have
argued for what they call the five themes of geography: location, place,
relationships within places, movement over the earth, and regions.
Whichever set of criteria one uses for developing test items, and despite the
popularity of paper-and-pencil multiple-choice questions, easily evaluated by
mechanical means, it is now widely accepted that evaluation procedures, to be
valid, must include questions requiring the student to demonstrate reasoning
abilities for reaching a particular conclusion about spatial interrelationships.
Evaluating responses that demonstrate reasoning powers along with knowledge of
specifics requires more time than current test practice provides and will, therefore,
not be widely used until there is a broader acceptance of in-depth analyses of
knowledge as the better indicator of students' progress toward geographic literacy.
THE
STATUS
OF
RESEARCH
IN
GEOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
ACCORDING TO RUTHERFORD
Research Study
This category is similar to Bednarzs Geography Learning and Thinking. Again,
the focus is on empirically driven data to prove acquisition of knowledge.
Theoretical Synthesis
EAVALUATION
The geography teachers opinion and attitudes about self-evaluation process
(reflection) in their professional development activities- improving teacher
performance, teacher achievements and professional development growth, appear
to be the most important determinants to the implementation and decision of using
self-evaluation, regardless of personal background followed.
One of the most significant findings that emerge from this study is that the selfevaluation is a positive perceived action for the most geography teachers.
Important findings that also emerge from this study are that geography teachers
indicated self-evaluation process as a very useful tool that effects both their and
students motivation. Lack of time, lack of teachers motivation and lack of
seminars are considered as the most important obstacles for implementing.
Finally, as an exploratory study in a field that is under-researched, the
questionnaire did achieve its aim of presenting a broad picture of geography
teachers views about self-evaluation process. Implication of these data includes
the need to continue to provide effective support which helps teachers to identify
gaps in knowledge about reflection that can be addressed in future professionaldevelopment activity.
CONCLUSION
Within geography, a specific focus that may naturally transition to demonstrating
Learning and Thinking is in the area of technology. Interestingly, the year (2003)
with the most number of Learning and Thinking research articles also had a
relatively high number of technology articles. Research in technology and
geography education is a rather open field. There are many possibilities to
incorporate the Learning and Thinking model with technology. Also, technology
may more easily produce data since there are variables that are more easily
controlled than in an open classroom. One example is the 2011 study by Demirici
in which two different classrooms that used ESRIs ArcView 9.2 GIS software
were compared. One classroom used only a single computer modeled by the
teacher and the other classroom allowed all students to use their own individual
computers (Demirici2011). The students taught with one computer in which the
teacher modeled the program had a higher success rate than those students using
individual computers (2011). However, students that used individual computers
had more overall satisfaction with the lesson. From this information, districts could
push for more teacher training in GIS applications, make the case for interactive
whiteboards in the classroom, and encourage grants for personal computers or
electronic devices that enhance geography lessons.
Reference