States that toys can be used in the social studies classroom to help elementary students learn and retain relevant content. Discusses how to incorporate toys into the classroom. Lists toys, games, and lesson plan ideas that can be used when teaching history, geography, and economics. (CMK)

Presents background information on the life of Galen Rowell. Includes ideas for teaching activities and a reproduction of one of his photographs. Describes the content of the photograph, exploring Rowell's use of alpenglow, a condition that occurs when the light of the setting sun strikes a mountain peak after the valleys are in shade. (CMK)

Offers one example of a lecture that can build on personal research experience to demonstrate the ways in which attitudes of categories influence the focus, design, and outcomes of research projects. Provides some suggestions for further developing the lecture material in a post-lecture tutorial session and/or assignment. (CMK)

Offers a framework for being a mentor while engaging feminist praxis (promoting women, people of color, and others marginalized within the academy and assisting them in negotiations with the academy). Discusses strategies that have been useful in choosing a mentor, mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, and the experience of being a…

This article provides examples of how a teacher can take childhood as a main topic of a unit of study and create interesting lessons that cover many aspects of social studies. It describes how a classroom learning community can be a place for helping students practice democratic principles while addressing academic subjects. It demonstrates that…

"Time, Place, and Play," is a short phrase, but is summarizes three very big concepts--history, geography, and culture--that are part of the elementary social studies curriculum. This article relates the story of how twenty-five elementary and middle school teachers, meeting over several weeks in a university class, designed a unit of study on the…

This paper attempts to unravel the complexities of including the personal in geographical teaching. Drawing on email responses from 10 academics and her reflective teaching diary, the author differentiates the "personal" as experiential and "personal" as private in these accounts of teaching practices, revealing the contingent (re)constitution of…

Public education in Kentucky schools was fundamentally changed in 1990 with the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). This educational reform--mandated by the Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that funding for Kentucky public school districts was neither adequate nor equitably distributed--established a platform on which standards-based…

This paper uses phenomenography to identify undergraduates' conceptions of teaching, learning and geography and examine whether there are any differences between students in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The paper shows that there are several distinct conceptions of teaching, learning and geography. Teaching is…

In Singapore, geography emerged as a strongly masculinist university discipline during the interwar years under colonial rule. Localizing staff hires in the postcolonial era did not immediately produce gender-balanced staff profiles. Instead, a more equitable gender representation was achieved only in the last decade, following the increasing…

This paper explores the results of an 18-month study at Brunel University that aimed to explain the significant gendered differences in academic performance amongst geography students. Male students are doing considerably less well than their female peers, being awarded far fewer first class and upper second class degrees, a phenomenon that cannot…

A concern with the role of the 'Other' in geography in higher education has led to work on the incorporation of marginalized social groups into learning contexts. Recently some authors have discussed the role of language in teaching, and in particular the dominant role of the English language in marginalizing non-Anglophonic students and subject…

The internationally shared belief that higher education has a role to play in delivering graduates with an ability to contribute to the knowledge-based economy is one of the main driving forces behind the 'employability agenda' that has emerged in UK higher education in recent years. For a variety of reasons, including the genuine desire to meet…

Substantial urban growth fueled by a strong economy often results in heavy traffic thus making streets less hospitable. Traffic calming is one response to the pervasiveness of the automobile. The issues concern built environments and involve multiple actors reflecting different interests. The issues are rarely technical and involve combinations of…

This paper first describes problem-based learning; second describes how a research methods course in geography is taught using a problem-based learning approach; and finally relates student and staff experiences of this approach. The course is run through regular group meetings, two residential field trips and optional skills-based workshops.…