2000
Index
Journal
of Geography in Higher Education Cumulative Index
ABSTRACT
The Journal of Geography in Higher Education has a vision
of being inclusive. This paper examines what the journal, throughout its history,
has published on teaching and learning in relation to people and places referred
to in contemporary scholarship as the 'Other'. It addresses themes of gender,
race/ethnicity, sexuality, and the 'Third World', noting especially the surprising
paucity of material on the latter. In particular, the article explores ways
in which teaching addresses aspects of students' values and attitudes, and the
importance of linking knowledge, emotion, experiential learning and action.
KEYWORDS
The ‘Other’, values, attitudes, experiential learning.
ABSTRACT
Role play is an effective teaching and learning technique.
This paper discusses the purpose, design, implementation and value of an issues-based
role play exercise in a first-year undergraduate topic at an Australian university.
The exercise requires students to consider the implications for environment,
economy and culture of a large-scale tourist development on the small South
Pacific island of Rarotonga. Students work together in small groups developing
a particular point of view and presenting their arguments to the whole class.
The paper is based on the first two consecutive years of development. Changes
were made in the second year following students' and tutors' comments on the
initial exercise. The results of these changes, and the students' reactions
to their learning, are discussed. Students' identification of the skills gained
and their satisfaction with the exercise are analysed and suggestions for successful
running of similar exercises are outlined.
KEYWORDS
Role play, tutorials, skills, negotiation, group work, communication, environment.
IAN FULLER, STEVE RAWLINSON & ROGER BEVAN, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
ABSTRACT
This paper reports a project carried out with first-year geography students
undertaking physical geography fieldwork. An experiment within the context of
fluvial studies tests the effectiveness of student learning using contrasting
approaches based on analytical-prediction and descriptive-explanation. The results,
based on marks analysis and a review of student feedback, indicate that in the
short term the traditional descriptive-explanation approach is significantly
more conducive to student learning than the analytical-predictive mode.
KEYWORDS
Physical geography, fieldwork, analytical-predictive, descriptive-explanation,
student learning.
IAIN HAY, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
KEN FOOTE, University of Texas at Austin, USA
MICK HEALEY, Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education, Cheltenham,
UK
ABSTRACT
A variety of challenges and opportunities associated with educational change,
technological shifts and resource limitations make appropriate an international
network for geography education. Such a network was established formally in
Hawai'i during April 1999 under the name International Network for Learning
and Teaching (INLT) Geography in Higher Education. INLT has the goal of improving
the quality of learning and teaching of geography in higher education internationally.
A number of INLT projects are outlined. These include: establishing a communication
network; developing a database and clearinghouse; establishing links with other
organisations; linking student projects internationally; and establishing a
pilot project to explore learning and teaching strategies.
KEYWORDS
International Network for Learning and Teaching Geography, INLT, learning and
teaching, communication, collaboration, resources, community.
DEREK REEVE, University of Huddersfield, UK
SUSAN HARDWICK, Southwest Texas State University, USA
KAREN KEMP, University of California at Berkeley, USA
TERESA PLOSZAJSKA, Liverpool Hope University College, UK
ABSTRACT
Increasing interest is being shown in developing distance learning courses within
geography. Emerging educational technologies, based on the Internet, seemingly
lie at the root of much of this interest. Experience of providing distance learning
materials argues, however, that technology should not be the central concern
for groups wishing to develop distance learning programmes. Other issues are
more important. These include defining the model of distance learning they wish
to develop, developing appropriate educational strategies, and establishing
appropriate business and organisational models. Developing distance learning
programmes that are intended to operate across national boundaries adds considerably
to the challenges involved.
KEYWORDS
International distance learning, educational technologies, pedagogic issues,
business models, institutional impacts, co-opetition.
BRIAN CHALKLEY, University of Plymouth, UK
ERIC J. FOURNIER, Samford University, USA
A. DAVID HILL, University of Colorado, USA
ABSTRACT
This paper address three questions: (1) What do we mean by ‘high-quality’ geography
teaching in higher education? (2) How do we identify and evaluate it? and (3)
To what extent are faculty and departments held accountable for the quality
of their teaching? For anyone interested in geographical education, these questions
are obviously of fundamental importance and yet curiously they are rarely asked,
at least in this direct form. The reason may be that although these questions
sound disarmingly simple to pose, they are considerably harder to answer. In
this paper we make our task still more difficult by adding a fourth question:
How do the answers to these questions vary between the UK and the USA? We provide
an admittedly limited international synthesis by comparing and contrasting our
interpretations from the UK and the USA. The paper closes by highlighting a
series of issues that could form part of a continuing agenda for further, more
detailed, comparative work in this area.
KEYWORDS
Teaching, assessment, accountability, quality.
KAREN NAIRN, University of Otago, New Zealand
DAVID HIGGITT, University of Durham, UK
DOMINIQUE VANNESTE, K.U. Leuven, Belgium
ABSTRACT
Fieldwork is a distinctive feature of geography in higher education and is therefore
a subject that is likely to be scrutinised by an emerging international network.
Originating from an Internet discussion, the paper considers the context of
internationalism for the enhancement of fieldwork practices. These broadly comprise
opportunities to debate and discuss pedagogic issues about fieldwork in an international
forum and to facilitate more effective international fieldwork opportunities
and exchange. In examining specific issues affecting internationalisation, attention
is drawn to the frequently implicit assumptions about the value of fieldwork
and the need to foster research on the delivery of fieldwork objectives.
KEYWORDS
Fieldwork, internationalisation, co-operation.
JOHN STAINFIELD, University of Plymouth, UK
PETER FISHER, University of Leicester, UK
BOB FORD, Westminster College of Salt Lake City, USA
MICHAEL SOLEM, University of Colorado, USA
ABSTRACT
Virtual Field Trips (VFTs) have a valuable role in supporting and enhancing
real fieldwork and empowering students who are disadvantaged financially or
physically. The development of good VFT and VFT tools is still in its infancy
and full ‘virtuality’ is still many years away. This article traces the evolution
of virtual field trips, outlining their advantages and disadvantages and provides
a brief overview of the materials and approaches currently becoming available.
KEYWORDS
Virtual Field Trips, Virtual Field Course, ICT, international.
DAVID C. RICH, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
GEOFFREY ROBINSON, University of Leicester, UK
ROBERT S. BEDNARZ, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
ABSTRACT
Collaboration may help secure many of the benefits of, and overcome many of
the obstacles to, the transformation of learning and teaching that is currently
in prospect, arising partly from the pervasive effects of information and communications
technologies. Benefits accrue from interactions and sharing between students
and between staff, and in developing teaching resources, creating learning-resources
databases, and delivering courses. International collaboration has additional
dimensions: larger scale and diversity of activity; wider cross-cultural considerations;
and international student programmes. Major collaborative innovations face four
groups of issues: challenges to established institutional structures and practices;
re-allocations of funding; adherence to agreed technical standards; and legal
impediments. These are more complex at the international level at which the
International Network for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education
will operate.
KEYWORDS
Information and communications technologies (ICTs), collaborative teaching and
learning, innovation, interaction, resource-based learning, International Network
for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education (INLT).
RICHARD LE HERON, University of Auckland, New Zealand
JAMES T. HATHAWAY, Slippery Rock University, USA
ABSTRACT
If there is a universal question that most academic geographers have been asked
by students, it is “What can I do with geography?”. We argue in this paper that
an important dimension of quality improvement in geography education is closing
the gap between the perceived social usefulness of the subject (suggested by
evidence to be relatively low) and the realities of what a subject offers as
preparation for workplace roles (rated on evidence as relatively high). A potentially
central part of the International Network in Learning and Teaching (INLT) Geography
in Higher Education, therefore, is communicating information about skills for
employment and life that are obtainable from geography-inspired instructional
programmes. But behind the seemingly straightforward task of communicating a
message is in fact a much more fundamental issue—getting to grips with socio-economic
changes that are rewriting the nature and place of geographic learning and teaching.
We suggest that positive outcomes from efforts to improve the quality of learning
and teaching of geography will depend in part on strengthening and stabilising
geography’s image, particularly in the eyes of school and university students.
We conclude that initiatives, already underway in several countries to popularise
the ‘skills profile’ of a geography education, offer a framework for reimaging
the subject.
KEYWORDS
Geographical skills, employment skills, relevance, communicating, quality improvement.
SARAH BEDNARZ, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
SUE BURKILL, College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth, UK
JOHN LIDSTONE, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
ELEANOR RAWLING, University of Oxford, UK
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that the development of the International Network for Learning
and Teaching Geography (INLT) provides a timely opportunity to explore the benefits
of greater links between the school and higher education sectors. The authors,
geographers with professional and personal expertise in learning and teaching
geography in both school and higher education contexts, address key aspects
of school geography in order to reflect on existing linkages and possible future
collaboration with higher education. Firstly, we examine existing school and
higher education connections at the national level. We go on to review aspects
of learning, teaching, and curriculum reform that have developed in schools
in the UK, US and Australia in order to assess how these may be shared with
higher education. Then we reflect on the need to strengthen links between geography
and teacher education and education research. Finally, we discuss existing international
networks and their implications for INLT. We conclude with some proposals for
co-operation.
KEYWORDS
International Network for Learning and Teaching, school–higher education links,
teacher education.
IFAN D. H. SHEPHERD, Middlesex University, UK
JANICE J. MONK, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
JOOS DROOGLEEVER FORTUIJN, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
Key issues relating to the internationalisation of geography in higher education
are explored. Drawing on past experience, critical questions are posed regarding
the goals, ownership, management and operation of a proposed international network
for teaching and learning in geography in higher education. It is argued that
those developing the network must learn from the lessons of the past, both to
avoid repeating avoidable mistakes and to ensure that the network successfully
achieves its intended aims.
KEYWORDS
Internationalisation, geography, higher education, network.
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