Learning human geography in a blended environment: insights from a mixed-methods study in China

It is important to evaluate the education given in the institutions where geography education is given at the higher education level and to get student opinions. In this age where information technology is developing and entering the education life day by day, it has been considered important to examine human geography education with new technologies and methods. The aim of this study is to analyze the views of geography students about the human geography course with the phenomenology design, which is one of the qualitative research methods. In this context, a semi-structured interview form consisting of three questions was prepared with expert opinion to be asked to the students. Due to Covid-19 outbreak restrictions, a university's geography department, which is at the west of Turkey, have asked questions to the students electronically and received their answers the same way. The answers to the questions in the interview form answered by the students were interpreted by coding and categorizing. According to the result of the research, it was concluded that the students' opinions about the human geography course were positive, that the students gave more priority to the population issue and it attracts their attention. According to this result, it is thought that the transformation of human geography lessons into an education strengthened with technological infrastructure is needed for students to be more beneficial in their future professional and academic lives, so changes should be made in this direction.

Growing student interest in sports provides geography teachers with a special opportunity to make connections between it and fundamental concepts in the discipline. This article examines the structure, arrangement, relationships, and distinctions among minor league baseball franchise locations, stadia, and team names, and presents examples of their applicability to teaching the five themes of geography and addressing many of the national geography standards in introductory human geography courses.

The aim of this study is to understand the relationships between critical theory-based approaches and its implementations in geography teaching departments in Turkey. Critical theory dates back to 1930s and has developed over time aiming to deal with institutions, culture and society through critical lens. Currently, critical theory-based research designs and research paradigms inspire a large number of books, articles especially in qualitative researches due to their beneficial outcomes for the vulnerable, the poor and the othered segments of society with which critical researches are mainly concerned.In the study, firstly it was described critical theory and critical research characteristics. Secondly, human geography and critical research relationships covered. Thirdly, human geography courses in geography teaching departments in Turkey explained in connection with critical theory. The relationships between these courses, critical theory and critical research were tried to explore. The study emphasized the importance of critical theory in courses in human geography considering far-reaching effects of critical theory on humanities, social sciences and art studies. Human geography has and should have close connections with other disciplines and sub-disciplines drawing on multiple theories, concepts and approaches.

Skills in map use and interpretation are important in geography education. Atlases represent special collections of maps that can be beneficial for developing map use and interpretation and spatial analysis skills in geography students. In this study, we examine the utilization of atlases in geographic coursework. We surveyed 295 geography instructors in theU.S.andCanadaabout their usage of both print and digital atlases in geography courses of different level. The survey generated 54 responses. The findings indicated that about 39 percent of instructors use atlases in instruction, most of those use print atlases rather than digital atlases. It was found that most of the instructors who use atlases in their instruction teach upper-level Human Geography courses. Some other general courses, in which atlases were used are: Introduction to GIS, Remote Sensing, World Regional Geography, and Introduction to Physical Geography. As indicated by the survey responses, atlases are widely used in special topic courses such as World Forests, Geography of North America, Research Methods in Geography, Natural Hazards, Geography of Europe, History and Theory of Geography, Current World Affairs, Geography of Pennsylvania, Political Geography, Geography of Russia, North American House Types, and Geography of Consumption. In addition to analyzing the survey responses, we also provide examples of atlas use in a variety of courses. We conclude that atlases are useful for studies of spatial associations and geographic patterns, as a background information or context resource, as a source that helps to learn geographic locations, and to learn cartographic methods and map design.

Case Study Approach

The competitive education systems are the ones with the highest ability to seize, implement and optimise new study and research paradigms. The Geography School of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at Babeș-Bolyai University follows this streamlining of curriculum elements, which, in the case of Regional and Human Geography, allows a series of changes that this paper shows. The research is based on the observation that there are thematic overlaps, gaps or incoherencies when tackling the contents of courses correlated to Regional and Human Geography, at Bachelor and M.Sc. level in Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography. We analysed the education plans of all the specialisations for the Romanian study language, in order to determine the position of the Regional and Human Geography courses (percentage, name, study order, similarities). We also analysed the Regional and Human Geography course charts. Our evaluation was based on several criteria: theme similarity, thematic chronology, and theme relevance. In this faculty, the actual curricula and syllabi are very heterogeneous. To increase the quality of teaching and learning, both curricula and syllabi for Regional and Human Geography of each specialisation and level (Bachelor’s and M.Sc.) must be improved as the present evaluation showed that there is a good potential for this.

Two modes of using undergraduate students as peer teachers in introductory courses have been developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Peer teachers are small group leaders in a human geography course built around role playing simulations; in two physical geography courses they are tutors in a self‐paced system. A separate course provides peer teacher guidance—a course‐within‐a‐course model. Socio‐psychological, pedagogical, economic, and political implications of peer teaching are interpreted after ten years' experience with the programme.

Behavioural geography has become an important part of teaching and research in contemporary human geography. A survey of British geography departments shows that behavioural geography has permeated undergraduate teaching both as specialist courses and in a range of broader human geography courses. This paper examines the former. It reveals considerable consensus on content masked by contrasting course organisation and discusses the relationship between the movement of the research frontier in behavioural geography and likely directions of change in teaching syllabuses.

Geography at elementary and middle schools in Louisiana, USA., remains a social studies strand along with civics, economics, and history, with no state-required geography course at any level. But because schools may require more geography than the state standard, this research examines the extent to which K–12 students are exposed to geography in Louisiana, using an electronic survey and an interview with state department of education officials. Results suggest that geography remains underemphasized, but the 2011 implementation of new social studies standards, the Advanced Placement Human Geography course, and other initiatives offer promise for more geographically literate Louisiana citizens.

This article describes a pilot project initiated in the fall term of 1993 that implemented and tested an interactive system of multimedia computer learning modules for an introductory human geography course. Modules actively involved students in learning and collaborative writing about topics illustrative of the breadth of contemporary human geography. Evaluation was achieved by means of analysis of student essays, electronic logs of student time spent in various portions of the system, and a comprehensive survey administered to students at the end of the term. This information suggests that the use of interactive multimedia lab modules can greatly enrich the learning environment for a wide range of students taking introductory human geography courses, though careful attention must be paid to ensure ease of use. The modules are now being refined based on these results; our hope is to make them available to other geography departments in the near future.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an example of internationalizing an Introduction to Human Geography course. This mostly consists of translating the material normally found in such a class into the explicit language of internationalization. This is accomplished by modifying the course to include less theoretical descriptions and more concrete examples of globalism at work. Topics normally found in an introductory Human Geography course are well suited for this. Religion, global development, foreign direct investment, immigration, language, and political conflict are avenues of investigation that overlap between geography and international or global studies.

Climate change is an important theme which is addressed in many subjects nowadays in Finnish curriculum.  Young people are also very worried about and interested in climate change.  Understanding causes and effects of climate change is important as well is thinking about different ways to make a difference, what could be done and who should be doing it. Sustainable development is one important way of making the change towards cooler planet.I planned and held an online course of human geography with climate change point of view as part of a project Climate Change to Upper Secondary Schools. In this project three online courses were planned: 1,5 Degrees Life Skills for Young People, Human Geography (“in Climate Change Marinade”) and Climate Knowledge. The idea of online courses was to increase important future skills like critical thinking, problem solving, influencing the society, which would give strength to young people on their way to a better future.  My course Human Geography was the only one evaluated with a grade and directed only to older upper secondary school students. The other courses were evaluated only as approved or failed and they were open also to younger secondary school students.In my Human Geography course we studied the basics of human geography so that in every topic, were it population changes or natural resources, also how it is linked to climate change, was considered. Also, assignments that students did were linking together climate change and the topic studied.  During the time of corona pandemic part of students got accustomed to studying independently online, and interest in studying this way has increased. This is why, at least in Finland, online courses in schools seem to become more and more common. They are also cheap way to provide studying possibilities in a country where we have lot of small villages great distances apart one another.In my poster I’ll describe what kind of course my Human Geography was and how it was accomplished.

Since the environment seems to be back on the agenda of human geography, it is important to (re)introduce this fundamental topic into human geography courses. This paper describes a teaching experience in the Geography Department of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, in which a block on environment issues was added to the introductory courses 'human geography'. While the experience had satisfactory results, it seems more appropriate to integrate the environmental dimension in each of the traditional topics in human geography rather than teaching environmental issues in isolation.

The new Advanced Placement (AP) human geography course is a wonderful opportunity to ensure the availability of high quality geographic education for high school students. As with any course, in addition to the students' interest and ability, their success is also closely linked to the teachers' preparation. In order to be as well prepared as possible, most AP human geography teachers want and need to know several things in addition to the course content. Questions addressed include how to promote the course, who to promote it to, necessary geographic background for both students and teachers, recommended texts and other resources, how to prepare students for the examination, and how to incorporate the course into the school curriculum.

The effectiveness of interdisciplinary sustainability curriculum remains understudied in geography education. Accordingly, we deployed and evaluated an interdisciplinary sustainability and STEM module for in-person and online sections of a fall 2018 Human Geography course. Results indicate that sustainability knowledge improved after the interdisciplinary curricular intervention irrespective of course modality. Another focus is to explore student reactions to teaching modality due to COVID-19 disruptions. Results indicate that online student sustainability knowledge also improved during COVID-19 (fall 2020). For students in a section converted from in-person to blended, sustainability knowledge did not improve. Implications are provided.