Place-name geography, as it is sometimes called, is merely the tip of the iceberg in a field that aims to understand people and places and their interactions with the environment. Geography is also the study of spatial distributions and interpreting what they mean. This review lays out the definition of the nature of science as it relates to…

It is argued that children's voice can and should be enhanced in primary schooling, and particularly in geographical learning. Using examples from different aspects of geographical experience and content, four approaches to engaging children's voice are presented: children leading and developing geographical topics; children bringing…

Young people in modern societies consciously (e.g. Facebook) or unconsciously (e.g. some Google services) produce a vast amount of geodata. Using relational databases, private companies are capable of creating very precise profiles of the individual user and his/her spatial practices from this data. This almost inevitably prompts questions…

Content development and maintenance of geographic information systems (GIS) related courses, especially designed for distance and online delivery, could be a tedious task even for an experienced instructor. The paper outlines application of abstract instructional design techniques for modeling course structure and developing corresponding course…

Fostering the cognitive skills to analyse environmental "commons dilemmas" is an urgent task of environmental education globally. Commons dilemmas are characterised by structural incentives to overexploit a natural resource; their solution is particularly pressing in threatened biodiversity "hotspot" areas. Solutions to these dilemmas require…

While Shulman argues that an important component of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is teachers' understanding of the alternative conceptions commonly held by students, relatively little is known about what students believe about many topics in the school curriculum. This paper focuses on a content area typically featured in Geography…

This is an autobiographical account of my geographical education. As a child I explored places far different from my home in S. Korea through my readings of children's literature--Pippi Longstocking in particular. My school experiences in Seoul did little to educate me geographically. This paper describes significant transformations during my…

Feminist geography teaching in universities in the Netherlands originated 30 years ago in an academic context that counteracted this new development for ideological reasons. Nowadays, the neoliberal conditions of the market have replaced the conservative ideology that prevailed 30 years ago. Feminist geography is supported as far as it returns…

In New Zealand universities, gender is still not a substantial part of the curriculum in most geography departments. Although at the University of Waikato, the situation is different. Its specific history of radical scholarship has enabled feminist academics in a variety of disciplines including geography to have had a stronger voice than in other…

Since the introduction of gender themes into university teaching in geography in Spain in 1989, significant gains have been made but challenges remain in relation to placing gender into undergraduate curricula and developing teaching resources in local languages. Geographers in Spain have to meet those challenges in the near future in order to…

The fall of communism in Central-Eastern Europe in 1989 brought major political, social, economic and cultural changes that reshaped the Romanian society as it transitioned from the totalitarian communist regime to a democratic one. The entire process of transition, eventuating in Romanian access to the European Union, brought important changes at…

"A little sultan" is a colloquial term used to describe a child who is a "spoilt brat" living in a Middle Eastern country such as Turkey. Little sultans are often boys in one-child families and with a greater sense of self-entitlement, as they would consider the world as owing them everything. This paper discusses how an uncritical curriculum may…

Understanding the causes, effects and geographic patterns of local hazards is important for helping individuals make educated decisions about how to respond to their threat. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to find comprehensive sources of information about local hazards. In this paper, we discuss the development of an online hazards atlas for…

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are adequate for analyzing complex scientific and spatial phenomena in geography education. "Google Earth" is a geographic information tool for GIS-based learning. It allows students to engage in the lesson, explore the Earth, explain what they identify and evaluate the implications of what they are learning.…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is one of a suite of strategies based on the premise that placing students at the centre of the learning process ultimately improves skills, knowledge and understanding. To date, however, there remain relatively few reports on the application of PBL within geography curricula. This paper traces the evolution of a PBL…