Examined how varying levels of geographic expertise facilitated reasoning with maps as representations of the earth's surface. Found that geography experts performed significantly better than novices and preservice teachers, and experts' performance was differentiated by the reasoning in which they engaged. Explored implications for understanding…

This document contains information and instruction for teachers who want to include an ECO/SOCIAL Studies approach in their teaching of social studies. ECO/SOCIAL Studies is defined as an instructional/investigative strategy that focuses and individual's attention on the continuous inter-relationships and interdependence between natural and social…

The criteria that elementary school teachers use to guide their decisions concerning content, sequence, and instructional strategy in geography and their frames of reference toward geography were examined through interviews and classroom observations. Research indicates that the teacher determines the curriculum that the students actually…

Compared data on English first graders' understanding of geographical terms in 1991 with data from 1993, after two years of National Curriculum for Geography. Found no significant differences; children from both groups had restricted or inconsistent understanding of many terms, and often constructed their own meanings based on intuition or…

Maintains that the National Geography Standards provide teachers with a geographic perspective that will help them teach improved geography content. Asserts that teachers can make connections between the Geography Standards and their own classrooms. Presents five suggested classroom activities based on the National Geography Standards. (CFR)

Describes the national geography standards, "Geography for Life," part of the Goals 2000 program. Asserts that the standards define the most important elements of geography content and instruction. Discusses innovative features of the standards and presents suggestions for using them. (CFR)

Describes a teaching experience in which a unit on environmental issues was added to a college-level human geography course. Asserts that environmental topics are not well-integrated into most geography courses. Concludes that the students enjoyed the experience but suggested that the environmental topics be integrated throughout the entire course…

Describes a lesson plan that uses Main Street images of three towns to encourage students to recognize and compare human and physical characteristics of places. The lesson teaches the geographic concepts of site (absolute location) and situation (relative location) as well as introducing students to urban geography. (MJP)

Describes the geographic information systems (GIS) curriculum at Roosevelt Middle School (Florida); the program includes an interactive matrix of communicative hardware and geographic software. Discusses problem-solving assignments, program flexibility for individual needs, cooperative learning via online communication, and the need for students…

To develop geography curricula, elementary and secondary school classroom teachers must understand curriculum theory as well as geography subject matter content. Awareness of these two areas helps teachers decide what students should learn, how they can learn the selected material, and how student achievement can be evaluated. Teachers will…

Arguing that new strategies can improve upon traditional college and university geography teaching, based on a "feeding-in-of-information" model, selected assumptions of the High School Geography Project (HSGP) strategies are presented. The HSGP has utilized new findings in learning theory and studies of the structure of knowledge. (1)…

Eleven position papers, prepared by the staff and guest lecturers of the Summer Institute on Approaches to Introductory College Geography Courses, focus on the purpose, nature, scope, structure, processes, content, and key concepts to be emphasized in introductory college geography courses. Since each lecturer presented his point of view, the…

This is the final report of the High School Geography Project (HSGP), born of a joint committee of the National Council of Geographic Education and the Association of American Geographers, 1959-1961. Chapter one presents an interim, rather than final, assessment of the project as it stood in the summer of 1970, at its completion. Chapter two…

In response to the need for sound classroom evaluation procedures, educational objectives in the area of geography are defined. In addition, suggestions and examples of test construction, based on the experiences and judgments of evaluators as well as on research findings from education and geography, are offered. (CK)

Based on students' generally shallow knowledge of geographic concepts on the one hand and a new and almost universal awareness of man in his milieu on the other, the author seeks to draw attention to the discipline of geography, and more specifically, political geography as an essential, fundamental component of international studies. The…