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…

Geography textbooks contain chapter or review questions that may engage students in spatial thinking. This research used Jo and Bednarz's (2009) "Taxonomy of Spatial Thinking" to evaluate the percentage of spatial thinking questions in four university-level world geography course textbooks. The results from this study were then…

Educators and parents alike often wonder what secondary students remember from a class after the semester is over. This study examined that question by looking at test data for participants who retook their semester final 77 days after they originally took it. Students were retested in World Geography, Algebra II and Physical Science. The findings…

Textbooks are an important tool for teaching and learning in high school geography classrooms. But what sort of picture do they provide of places that are different and distant from the countries in which they are published? This study explores this question through a concise analysis of a widely used American world geography textbook, with a…

The authors propose an instructional use for Google Earth (a GIS application) as an anchoring tool for knowledge integration. Google Earth can be used to support student explorations of world geography based on Wikipedia articles on earth science and history topics. We asked 66 Taiwanese high-school freshmen to make place marks with explanatory…

This study set out to better understand the changing links between geography and citizenship. Content analysis was conducted on eighteen high school world geography textbooks and state/national standards. Interviews were conducted with teachers and textbook authors. Five significant changes were noted: decline of national orientation and a greater…

In this case study, the work of an exemplary high school social studies teacher is highlighted. In her class, late-arrival immigrant students participated in oral, writing, and demonstration activities as they learned the physical, cultural, and historical traditions of geography education. As newcomers to the English language, the students'…