Integrating research into short-term study abroad programs is challenging because of language, fieldwork logistics, and traditional learning models based on passive classroom experiences. Experiential learning often makes use of research as experience, but relatively few examples integrate human and physical geography. Here, we describe an…

Imagining futures is challenging planners, policy-makers and educators alike. For young people growing up in our increasingly urbanised landscapes, new imaginaries are needed. Some of the complexities emerging in urban ecology are considered through an overview of geographical traditions and research findings reporting perspectives of young people…

Giant maps offer a potentially useful pedagogical tool for teaching mathematics and map skills. In this pilot study, giant maps were distributed to elementary schools in Colorado and New Hampshire and teachers were provided with guided activities designed to integrate mathematics and geography skills. In an assessment of student skills, it was…

This study investigated whether the environmental determinist approach, which was effective in geographical research especially at the beginning of 20th century and generally believed to be abandoned in the 1920's, still had impact on geography teacher candidates. With this aim in mind, teacher candidates were asked to prepare a single question by…

This dissertation explores how to teach web mapping. Web mapping skillsets are in demand by employers, yet a minority of Geographic Information Science (GIScience) programs include web mapping in their curricula. The dissertation seeks to promote web mapping education by addressing the barriers to teaching web mapping and instructional strategies…

Stratified teaching is an effective method and means to implement teaching students per their aptitude. Domestic and foreign scholars have carried out many experimental and quasiexperimental studies to observe the impact of stratified teaching on students' academic performance, but the results are quite different. So, can stratified teaching…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), first administered in 1969, is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what the nation's students know and can do in various subjects such as civics, geography, mathematics, reading, science, U.S. history, and writing. The results of NAEP are released as The…

Teaching AP Human Geography to freshmen seems like a daunting task and while there are many arguments both for and against offering the course to freshmen, for many teachers it is reality. In this article, the author offers nine tips to help high school freshmen be successful in the course and on the AP exam.

In recent years, geography educators have sought to make their pedagogy relevant to pressing social and environmental issues, but these efforts have largely imported pedagogies from outside of geography. In place-based education, in contrast, place--one of geography's defining themes--serves as a central organizing principle for a socially…

To understand how K-12 students in the USA are impacted by their interactions with international teachers (ie teachers visiting the USA from other countries), this study asked 'Does contact with an international teacher correlate with increased geo-cultural knowledge and/or receptiveness to non-USA countries, peoples and/or cultures?'. To address…

This paper provides a two-phase study to compare alternative techniques for augmenting landscape scenes on geography fieldtrips. The techniques were: a pre-prepared acetate overlay; a custom-designed mobile field guide; a locative media app on a smartphone; a virtual globe on a tablet PC; a head-mounted virtual reality display, and a geo-wand…

In this article, Kathryn Roberts & Kristy Brugar discuss their assessment of third-, fourth- and fifth-grade children's understandings of the types of maps commonly found in their social studies text and trade books, and the knowledge and misconceptions it revealed. They then discuss how teachers might begin to address those issues with…

Operating at the interface between ideas and action, graduate education in geography and planning has a responsibility to provide students with theoretical and practical training. This paper describes service-learning as a form of engaged pedagogy, exploring its ability to interrogate notions related to the "professional turn" and its…

Poor quality writing skills among undergraduate geography students is a significant concern among university instructors. This article reports on a multipronged strategy aimed at improving student writing in a large, first-year human geography course. The strategy emphasized ways to provide effective feedback through teaching assistant training,…

Almost eighty years ago, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, founder of Bank Street College of Education in New York City, wrote about social studies in ways that sound remarkably contemporary: "In the first place, we shall say that the curriculum should continue the laboratory methods, which means it should furnish the children with as many first-hand…