Current literature emphasizes the need to attempt new approaches in the teaching of Social Studies. Jerome S. Bruner in his book The Process of Education (1961), claims that the main objective of a school must be to "present subject matter effectively, - that is with due regard not only for coverage but also for structure." Only by teaching the fundamental structure of a subject is that subject comprehensible to the student. Bruner says: "Intellectual activity anywhere is the same, whether at the frontier of knowledge or in a third grade classroom. What a scientist does at his desk or in his laboratory .... is the same order as what anybody does when he is engaged in like activity if he is to achieve understanding. The difference is in degrees, not in kind. A schoolboy learning physics is a physicist, and it is easier for him to learn physics behaving like a physicist than by doing something else." Professional geographers advocate the inductive method of teaching so that pupils discover the structure of geography in the same way as it is understood by the professional geographer. The teaching then should be experimental and intellectually stimulating, leading from geographical data supplied to reach the desired principles and generalisations. To-day children at various levels of efficiency, learn the inductive method in their study of chemistry, biology, and similar sciences. In theory - if not always in practice- they study in laboratories, consider hypotheses, analyze examples, draw tentative conclusions, and make cautious generalisations. Similar inductive procedures have increasingly marked the work of professional geographers, sociologists and political scientists. In short, pupils should be taught to become amateur geographers, performing similar (not identical) tasks of those scholars working on the frontiers of knowledge. Paraphrasing Jerome Brune, "If children are going to learn geography, they must do things the way geographers do them." This is the whole essence of the laboratory approach - it is a successful way to teach geography because it is essentially the way geographers operate, During the last four years I have conducted a continuing experiment into the development of an approach to better geographic teaching. This experiment has attempted to evaluate the relative effectiveness of a laboratory approach to the teaching of geography. The word "laboratory" suggests exploration and adventure on a rather direct, personal basis. Thus, the laboratory approach provides the opportunity for active study at firsthand basis and direct involvement of the students. It makes provision for the students to do something on their own - using their thinking ability and with their own hands. This is the basis of inquiry-oriented approaches and the new strategies, now being increasingly used in the domain of social studies. But this direct experience does not mean that the laboratory approach in social studies education ignores reading and highly symbolic abstract experiences. The laboratory approach offers much more to the students than listening to the teacher or studying the textbook. It represents a significant means for communicating non-verbal experiences and knowledge to the students. For example, laboratory methods train individuals to develop their observational power, and help them acquire skills. Along with these, the atmosphere in the laboratory promotes the desire to share experiences. It develops the ability of working together, provides for individual, creative activity and heightens pupil motivation. Studies of instructional practices suggest that teaching processes and materials should be coordinated in a systematic manner. We should, as teachers, spend a great deal of time and effort in planning to that teaching materials are directly related to a systematic study of a problem. In recent years, considerable emphasis has been placed on individualization of learning. The laboratory approach maximizes the opportunity for individualization of learning, provides for creativity, and originality. The use of laboratory strategies and materials other than dry words and textbooks are significant in making social studies education real and concrete. The laboratory approach is not a panacea but it offers an opportunity to make the teaching of geography more interesting and exciting. It has proven possible in courses in physical science to have students perform simple experiments in order to come closer to understanding the methods of science. I see no conceivable reason why this can't be done in social science. In the Laboratory Approach students and teachers plan together and share materials, an important part of learning -teaching process. Besides fostering the achievement of the cognitive and effective objectives of teaching social studies the Laboratory Approach develops various kinds of skills -communicative, creative, acquisitive, organizational and manipulative. This course is based on the view that the traditional emphasis on expository teaching of Geography by lecture and rote memorization must be replaced by an emphasis on the use of inductive methods through which students learn to use the materials and modes of thought of geographers. In the course itself, the inductive approach is used, laboratory type studies are used throughout in which principles are applied to materials in the structuring of lessons. The uses of aerial photos described here are desirable in that the tool, the photo, is considered a means not an end. The exercises force the student to face situations which require him to generalize. He must make an orderly study of the land use of the area shown in the photograph and then organize the data for the purpose of generalization. The student also gains an appreciation of the problems of the map maker as well as a better understanding of the cultural and physical patterns of the area included in the photograph. This learning logically provides motivation for seeking similar patterns in the areas contiguous to that studied as well as to distant areas. The elements of geography teaching emphasized in this experimental work are the elements of geographic field study; observation and recording of information, selection of required data from that which has been observed and recorded and then analyzation, synthesization and interpretation of all this selected data in order to formulate a generalization. The ideas offered here are merely samples of kinds of experiments possible in the social studies Laboratory Approach. A flexible approach and a capitalizing on what takes place in both the classroom and the community may develop entirely different ways to involve the student in acting and reacting. "New frontiers" in any category of academic disciplines emerge from territory already explored. Those time-tested and solid foundations of the social studies which have served well in the past obviously must not be cast aside in favor of untested educational programs and designs. What are "new frontiers" for some, accordingly, may be old and comfortable territory for others. Some of the concepts and observations set forth in this paper, therefore, are not necessarily new, although many school systems for one reason or another may not have given them consideration or trial. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This study investigated the causes of difficulty experienced by Standard Nine Venda pupils in acquiring hierarchical geographical concepts. The study also focussed on intervention methods to assist pupils acquire concepts so that they could be able to transfer them to other situations. The literature was surveyed for background information on the role of prior knowledge, the transfer for attained concepts, instructional organization in acquiring concepts, and language and concept acquisition.

黃景鴻 = A study of the geographical knowledge of junior secondary school in Hong Kong and Guangzhou / Wong King Hung. / 稿本 / 論文(碩士)--香港中文大學硏究院教育學部,1992. / 參考文獻: leaves 143-158 / Huang Jinghong = A study of the geographical knowledge of junior secondary school in Hong Kong and Guangzhou / Wong King Hung.. / Chapter 第1章： --- 導言 / Chapter 1 .1 --- 硏究背景及動機 --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- 硏究目的及價值 --- p.2 / Chapter 第2章： --- 兩地地理課程的發展及現況 --- p.3 / Chapter 2 .1 --- 兩地地理課程的回顧 --- p.3 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- 兩地的社經發展背景及教育事業 --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- 兩地地理教育目的的發展 --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- 兩地地理教學内容的發展 --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2 --- 兩地初中地理課程的現況 --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- 目的 --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- 教育目標 --- p.21 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- 學習内容 --- p.22 / Chapter 2-2.5 --- 教材和教學法 --- p.25 / Chapter 2.2.6 --- 評鑑 --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3 --- 本章小結 --- p.29 / Chapter 第3章： --- 文獻回顧及理論基礎 --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1 --- 文獻回顧 --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- 有關地理在知識類別的文獻 --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- 有關地理知識的文獻 --- p.32 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- 有關中港兩地初中生地理知識的文獻 --- p.34 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- 有關港穗兩地初中地理課程的文獻 --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1.5. --- 小結 --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2 --- 理論基礎 --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- 課程 --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- 成續測驗 --- p.48 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- 比較教育 --- p.52 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- 研究架構 --- p.55 / Chapter 第4章： --- 硏究方法 --- p.60 / Chapter 4.1 --- 研究步驟 --- p.60 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- 文獻/資料比較 --- p.62 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- 問卷調˘¬ --- p.62 / Chapter 4.2 --- 硏究對象 --- p.62 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- 課程 --- p.62 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- 初中生 --- p.62 / Chapter 4.3 --- 硏究工具 --- p.65 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- 課程 --- p.65 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- 問卷一及二 --- p.65 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- 正式測試題的分析 --- p.70 / Chapter 4.4 --- 假設 --- p.72 / Chapter 4.5 --- 資料分析法 --- p.73 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- 問卷一 --- p.73 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- 問卷二 --- p.73 / Chapter 4. 6 --- 硏究限制 --- p.77 / Chapter 第5章： --- 兩地初中生地理知識的資料分析及結果 --- p.78 / Chapter 5.1 --- 整體成績比較 --- p.78 / Chapter 5.2 --- 分類成績比較 --- p.84 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- 人文地理與自然地理的成鑕比較 --- p.84 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- 中國地理與外國地理的成續比較 --- p.91 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- 地理位置與地理技巧的成績比較 --- p.97 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- 外國題目的成續比較 --- p.103 / Chapter 5.3 --- 本章小結 --- p.108 / Chapter 第6章： --- 兩地初中生課外獲得地理知識的情況 --- p.112 / Chapter 6.1 --- 接觸地理知識的途徑 --- p.112 / Chapter 6.2 --- 學生的時間分配 --- p.113 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- 電視與地理知識 --- p.114 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- 雜誌與地理知識 --- p.115 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- 傳媒與中國及外國地理知識 --- p.116 / Chapter 6.3 --- 旅遊與地理知識 --- p.121 / Chapter 6.4 --- 本章小結 --- p.123 / Chapter 第7章： --- 結語和建議 --- p.126 / 附錄：問卷一 --- p.129 / 問卷二 --- p.142 / 中文參考書目 --- p.143 / 英文參考書目 --- p.151

Traditional school subjects are having to compete for a place in a curriculum which is increasingly judged according to its perceived utilitarian value. According to current educational theory, geography's role in the curriculum is to develop concepts, skills, values and attitudes that allow pupils to understand the human and environmental issues which face their communities and communities throughout the world. In order to achieve these aims, teachers need to adopt a learner-centred teaching approach, yet geography teachers are faced with the dilemma of having to develop participatory teaching strategies within an existing structure which is largely product oriented. This thesis attempts to illustrate how changes can be effected in the approach to the teaching of geography, while working within existing syllabus constraints and while continuing to meet the demands made by the current examination system. To this end, Independent Study Topics are analysed as a means to bring about the desired changes in geographical education. The concept, Independent Study Topics as a 'blanket term' (Diepeveen, 1986) for pupil-centred activities is relatively recent in terms of the South African geography syllabus. In order to obtain greater clarity about the concept and its implications for geography teaching, this study examines current geographical theory relating to learner-centred approaches and relates them to teachers' perceptions of the role of IST in the geography curriculum. The second aspect of the study is concerned with the implementation of Independent Study Topics in a classroom research setting. The organisation and administration of Independent Study Topics in a single school setting is analysed and evaluated as a process of change. This analysis provides guidelines for developing a learner-centred approach which is necessary to ensure that geography retains its position in the school curriculum of the 1990's and beyond.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Given the current availability of newly-designed textbooks for senior secondary geography teachers and the limited focus on their role in promoting students’ ‘meaningful learning’ advocated in the curriculum reform, a study of teachers’ use of geography textbooks in Hong Kong is particularly timely. Seeking to know the teachers’ practice of using geography textbooks, this study aims at describing and explaining how teachers use the two sets of textbooks, and exploring how their use might be improved in the context of particular classrooms to bring about meaningful learning among students. Two single cases of teacher participants were chosen for study. A holistic case study approach was adopted with a wide range of qualitative research techniques, namely observation, interviews, documentation and journal-writing. Drawing on Remillard’s model of teachers’ role in curriculum development (1999), data collected for each case was analyzed to understand teacher’s activity of using textbooks in curriculum mapping, design and construction arenas. The findings showed that teachers may have different levels of engagement with the textbooks in different dimensions of teaching. Textbooks were generally used as a major source of knowledge in the content determination. Yet, teachers neither used them alone nor followed them slavishly. Driven by the advocacy of constructivist approach to learning, they not only chose relevant tasks from textbooks for students to undertake, but also used the textbooks as one of the sources of geographical ideas or stimulus materials to design the tasks with a focus on different levels of cognition for in-class activities. During the lessons, the PowerPoint files which came along with the prescribed textbooks were widely used for an exposition or reinforcement of students’ work. They were also flexibly used and adapted according to teachers’ spontaneous decisions to varying extents. Teachers’ diversity in their ways of using geography textbooks stemmed from the interaction between their different individual characteristics in terms of experience, knowledge and beliefs, and the textbooks in varying contexts. To a broader context, their diverse ways of using textbooks could be attributed to their different degrees of being influenced by public examination, lesson time, institutional polices and organization norms, professional development opportunities and computer infrastructure, as well as their attitudes towards students’ characteristics. It was worth noting that the constraints in the circumstances of teaching, such as time constraints for lesson preparation, sometimes made teachers difficult to perform their ideal teaching and learning roles. According to the three principles proposed by Hooper and Rieber (1999:258-260), certain ways of using the textbooks could generate the opportunities for supporting students’ meaningful learning were unveiled in this study. First, teachers who chose the essential content, selected important tasks and designed meaningful tasks based on the text and illustrations could provide opportunities for students to have active processing of lesson content. Next, the use of multitext approach in the group enquiry tasks, oral presentation and debriefing sessions could allow students to expose to information from multiple perspectives. Third, the presentation of content in the form of cases or examples, and the use of tasks or case studies in the textbooks for authentic work, issue-based or case-based enquiry learning could build upon students’ knowledge and life experience in meaningful contexts. Teachers’ interaction with textbooks did not guarantee the generation of meaningful learning outcome. To improve the ways of textbook use for students’ meaningful learning, several feasible strategies were identified. To cope with students’ limited capacity of working memory, teachers may slow down the pace of presentation, avoid students doing unnecessary tasks, and use suitable modes and structures of the presentation of information for students with different cognitive styles. Selective use of materials and props provided by the publishers could avoid the repetition of content and increase students’ interest in processing of lesson content. To increase students’ mental engagement in the tasks, their learning attitudes should be improved through interesting tasks in the textbooks, rewarding practice, team competition and small group work. It was also important to connect the content in the tasks to their existing knowledge through providing conditional knowledge, making the text more comprehensible to students and using visual images with more explicit information. Some higher-order questions should be added in the ready-made tasks to cater for diverse students’ abilities. Group work could be used to help the lower achievers in these tasks. Regarding the use of supplementary materials, teachers should use PowerPoints and their own resources together to sustain students’ engagement in the cognitive tasks. Since it was not easy to transfer knowledge through animations, words should be better presented as narration than on-screen text. To increase group engagement in the tasks, group work should be properly managed. Finally, teachers should make students familiar with real-life contexts before they started engaging them in tasks. In conclusion, teachers can use the textbooks to provide opportunities for students’ meaningful learning, but this sometimes became unattainable because of difficulties in the circumstances of teaching. Findings suggested that more efforts should be made to improve initial teacher education programme, increase teachers’ professional development opportunities, provide more useful offerings in the textbooks, relieve the problems of time constraints for lesson preparation and inadequate lesson time, and teach students’ enquiry skills and collaborative skills. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

The advancing technology worldwide is a challenge to every creature on planet earth. People are thirsty for knowledge and resources to achieve their goals. Resource as the word implies is anything that a teacher can use to enhance a lesson. Resources then lead to the establishment of resource centres. Resource centres are where information or media materials are accessible. This place can keep resources such as computers, audio-visual resources, books and charts. Throughout the world researchers agree that for real learning to take place, learning and teaching must be as stimulating as possible, and this can be done through the use of different kinds of resources. The objective for writing this research report is to investigate the resources available to geography teachers. This project intends to inform all stakeholders in education about the impact of educational resources, in the light of overcrowded classrooms with few or no resources and the recruitment of too few and inadequately qualified teachers as is the norm today in rural areas of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2000.

Research has shown that in the South African school context textbooks are perceived as the most important guide to subject content. It is essential, therefore, that pupils and teachers should possess skills and strategies that they can use to interpret and understand the textbook. Equally, textbook writers ought to be aware of the cues pupils need to facilitate the learning process. Problems that hinder the learning of geography subject content from textbooks may arise from, among other things, the style in which the text is written, the way in which concepts are developed, the presentation of visual materials and elements of bias and stereotyping. This study scrutinises and analyses two standard 6 geography textbooks prescribed for Ciskei schools to assess the extent to which these textbooks consider the language competence of the pupils, explain and develop concepts, and in general promote the geographical education. Interviews with Ciskei teachers revealed that Standard 6 pupils encounter difficulties in the geography textbooks which are attributed to the fact that they are second language learners and they lack the requisite skills for interpreting visual materials. The analysis of the textbooks revealed that despite efforts made in recent years to rectify the most blatant aspects of bias and stereotyping and to improve the presentation of textbooks, a number of serious problems continue to exist particularly with regard to the Standard 6 learner of geography. The study attempts to alert writers of texbooks and teachers to factors which need to be taken into consideration to assist second language speakers toward effective learning.

Geography, more than other subjects in the curriculum, plays a central role in general education in equipping learners with skills and competencies needed for modern living and global citizenship. A learner-centred education in Namibia was adopted to provide more opportunities for learners to develop the required skills and competencies irrespective of their different cultural background. This small-scale case study investigated three Grade 10 geography teachers' understanding and implementation ofa learner-centred approach to gain insights into how leamer-centred education is being implemented in the context of Geography. The research design adopted a qualitative approach within an interpretative orientation. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations and documentary analysis. The research was conducted at three selected schools in Oshikoto Region with three Grade 10 geography teachers The findings revealed, firstly, that teachers have a limited understanding of the key ideas ofLCE, such as, prior knowledge, role of questioning, and social interaction in learning; use of resources and the types of assessment activities which comply with the aims of LCE. Seconclly, the findings revealed that the policy documents, such as syllabuses, that are being used by the participants are not in line with the tenets ofLCE. Thirdly, teachers appeared to have limited subject knowledge, as revealed by their lack of understanding of how to translate the aims and assessment objectives into their daily lessons. The study therefore raises some possibilities for improving the implementation of LCE in the selected schools if the gaps as identified by this study are reduced.