Adaptive teaching is a pedagogical approach which encourages teachers to adapt their teaching practices to deliver custom learning experiences by addressing students' individual needs and differences. This article describes how one beginner geography teacher adapted instructional practices to meet her students' learning needs. First, we provide a…

World regional geography is one of the most popular and most heavily subscribed geography courses in the United States at both the undergraduate and K-12 levels (Rutherford 2001; Mueller 2003; Bednarz 2004). Yet little consensus exists about the content that the course should include or the approach that should be used to teach it. Debate exists…

This exercise introduces students to the observation that warming is unequal at the level of regions and countries, helps them analyze why this is so, and encourages reflection on actions by specific countries. In addition, students will uncover the relative roles of methane and carbon dioxide in local warming, the role of greenhouse gas emissions…

The migration of people along transnational paths, combined with the increased connectedness of billions of people through global media networks, requires reinvestment in a twenty-first century, multidisciplinary conceptualization of geography education. The "colonizer's model of the world" that has for too long identified countries as…

Geography is not what it used to be. Nowadays, that subject is often buried--and therefore inadequately covered--in a social studies curriculum itself under siege because of the extended commitment in schools to reading and math. But geographical knowledge also is not what it used to be. It has become essential to understanding a brave new world…

Statistics is the art and science of gathering, analyzing, and making conclusions from data. However, many people do not fully understand how to interpret statistical results and conclusions. Placing students in a collaborative environment involving project-based learning may enable them to overcome misconceptions of probability and enhance the…

This article presents a lesson plan used to teach about African urbanization using Kenyan novels. Specifically, three urban novels written by Meja Mwangi are used. Based on a qualitative survey of student preference and learning, this lesson plan uses these novels alongside more traditional academic texts to achieve effective student learning.…

In the United States, people get very little news about Africa, and what news they do get is about war or famine, with little historical information or context. In this article, the authors describe how they developed and implemented a Pan-African Summit simulation project in order to give their approximately 100, 9th-grade students (in five World…

Active learning strategies include a variety of methods, such as inquiry and discovery, in which students are actively engaged in the learning process. This article describes several strategies that can be used in secondary-or college-level world geography courses. The goal of these activities is to foster development of a spatial perspective in…

One of the best vehicles for creating lifelong learners of geography involves not only making students see the relevance and the importance of the field, but to cultivate a sense of fun and enjoyment pertaining to geography as well. Incorporating international foods in the world geography classroom is not only an interesting alternative way to…

The affordances of online learning technologies have enabled more widespread development of learning environments that facilitate the exploration and solving of complex and realistic problems. In this paper, we describe the design of a real world geography problem, embedded within a web environment that is facilitated by an onsite excursion for…

The World Civilization curriculum at Tidewater Community College was redesigned to integrate basic skills with the content assignments. The targeted skills were library reference and research, geography, reading comprehension, critical analysis, grammar usage, and creative writing and thinking. During the first semester, World Civilization…

Profiles a third-/fourth-grade thematic unit developed to introduce students to contemporary global society and its economic and environmental interdependence. The unit simulates a trip to foreign countries and integrates mathematics, music, art, and language. Various assignments are included in the student's portfolio. (MJP)

Geographic illiteracy is prevalent in schools today. The objectives of this practicum were to increase 85 percent of the target group's geographic knowledge by 40 percent and to increase parental involvement with the academic success of the student by 40 percent. Activity sheets were created covering political boundaries, landforms, neighboring…

Summarizes the recent changes in the highly centralized national geography curriculum in Japan. Prominent reforms include the implementation of environmental studies in the elementary schools and a broader emphasis, across the curriculum, on world geography. In teacher education, emphasis is now placed on teaching skills rather than subject…