Poor geographic knowledge among students and citizens, in general, has been one of the main research concerns in the area of geography education. This study is part of a project aimed at determining compulsory secondary education students' level of geographic knowledge and providing tools to improve learning. Following quantitative research…

A key responsibility of academic scholarship is to further develop the field under investigation and to critically evaluate how it is responding to challenges from both inside and outside of the field of enquiry. This article offers an overview of whether the scholarship published in geography education (GE) from the perspective of the Commission…

One of the ideas of the GeoCapabilities project(s) is to open up an international debate on the purposes and values of geography education. In line with this, the aim of this article is to examine some central perspectives used in GeoCapabilities, such as curriculum thinking, the teacher as 'curriculum maker' and the perspective of powerful…

In 2019, the State of South Carolina (USA) adopted new social studies standards with an emphasis on disciplinary skills in addition to content throughout the social studies areas of history, geography, civics, and economics. These skills were introduced for all grades, kindergarten through grade 12. Geography courses were added in grades 3 and 7.…

One of the definitions of biodiversity, which has many definitions, is the differences between living things or the diversity of life forms in the world. According to another definition, biodiversity is a group of wholes formed by genes, species, ecosystems and ecological events in a region. The importance of biodiversity is gradually increasing…

The word "geo-graphy" means "writing the earth". The subject of geography bears responsibility for engaging, constituting and configuring world knowledge, in other words, what the world is. This paper describes an enquiry into the nature of school geographical knowledge at a time of curriculum policy reform. In 2010, the newly…

This document provides the framework to guide the development of the assessment instruments for the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in geography. Altogether, four documents will be designed to guide the geography assessment and this Assessment Framework is the first. This framework is designed to assess the outcomes of…

The authors share a successful Fulbright Group Projects Abroad grant award. The purpose of the grant was to enhance American educators' experience and knowledge of South Africa, in particular, and sub-Saharan Africa more generally. Toward that end, participants experienced a multifaceted view of South Africa's geographical diversity, both physical…

The purpose of this study is to explore students' understanding levels and misconceptions about temperature and factors affecting it. The concept of the study was chosen from Geography National Curriculum. In this study, a questionnaire was developed after a pilot study with an aim to ascertain the students' understanding levels of temperature and…

Programs in geographic information systems (GIS) and related areas (e.g., GPS, remote sensing) have become important additions to the curriculum at colleges and universities of all sizes and types, including tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) such as Haskell Indian Nations University. This article discusses the recent development of a GIS…

The use of content-based language instruction (CBI) offers an innovative and effective method for teaching core geographic concepts and skills while students study a second language. This article focuses on a collaborative initiative developed and tested by university and high school level geography and second-language educators. The goal of the…

Geography, as with all subjects, has a set of organising principles and concepts. One of the central concepts which underpins the subject is that of place. However, it is very much the case that this is an evolving concept, which has taken on a number of guises over time. This paper reviews some of the major changes in perspectives on place as a…

As part of a program to improve college and university training geography, this book contains four course outlines developed by members of the Commission on College Geography of the Association of American Geographers. "A Proposal for a New Geography Course for Liberal Education: Introduction to Geographic Behavior" is an introductory course to…

Suggests a way to resolve conflicts among college level teachers of geography regarding what should be taught in introductory human geography courses. The method centers on a list of core concepts which could be taught in all sections of the course. Concepts, selected through analysis of commonly used textbooks, include agriculture, industry, land…

The articles in this report describe how field work, which is highly relevant to modern research and theory, can be used to improve geographic instruction at several instructional levels. Chapter one places the role of field work in geographic instruction in the broader context of contemporary theories of learning. The second chapter describes an…