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…

This article relates about some results of an interdisciplinary research project analyzing influencing factors of children's spatial orientation competence in real space carried out by geography educators and psychologists. The focus is on the concept of representation as a theoretical foundation. The research design for collecting data of…

Geographical inquiry involves collecting, using and making sense of the data to investigate some geographical phenomena. With the increasing number of mobile devices equipped with Internet access capabilities, there is a wide scope for using it in field inquiry where learning can take place in the form of social interactions between team members…

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…

The National Research Council emphasizes using tools of representation as an essential element of spatial thinking. However, it is debatable at what age the use of spatial representation for spatial thinking skills should begin. This study investigated whether young Korean children possess the potential to understand map-like representation using…

Basic education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) seems to be characterized by lecture methods of instruction, a lack of interdisciplinary approaches and a disconnection with local community problems. During 2008, a "My Community, Our Earth" (MyCOE) workshop was organized in the MENA region and involved teachers of geography, math and…

This paper describes a study conducted with 235 children from Brazil and Switzerland. The children, from 5 to 13 years of age, were asked to draw the journey they undertake every day from home to school. The purpose of the study is to understand the relationship between the cognitive development and map-drawing abilities of children in both…

Whilst widespread diffusion and adoption of spatial enabling technology, such as geographic information systems (GIS), is taking place within Australian public and private sectors, the same cannot be said for GIS within Australian secondary schools and state-based geography curricula. In the Australian state of Victoria, information regarding the…

A foundational skill for all field-based sciences is the ability to accurately record the location of field observations onto a map. To investigate the strategies children use when recording their observations during field-based inquiries, fourth graders were asked to indicate the location of colored flags by placing similarly colored stickers on…

This study aims at introducing, explaining and evaluating the revised secondary school (high school) geography lesson curriculum in Turkey. Preliminary studies on the new curriculum started in 2002, and it was implemented in 2005. In this context, the article will focus on the programme development process and approaches, principle components of…

This paper explores substantive and methodological issues in relation to pupils' conceptions of geography. It draws on an in-depth qualitative study with 13-14-year-old pupils from three secondary schools. Selected pupils were interviewed numerous times about their geography classroom experiences and ideas about the subject in general. A detailed…

This paper discusses the teaching of the values of space, and the development of sustainable regions, as viewed through a prism of values, and which should become an integral part of the geography curriculum. The author is convinced that new methodologies for the teaching of space-related topics in primary and secondary schools across Europe…

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has tremendous potential for being a tool that can connect students to post school opportunities not yet known. The technology is robust and well developed, used by many workplaces and integral in a nation's future well-being and defence. However, despite many isolated attempts by teachers to incorporate GIS…

Observations are given upon interviews with children about their perceptions of continents, countries and places within those countries. A picture emerges that suggests there is a clear difference between children's geographies and geography as constituted as an adult academic subject, even when the same language is being used. (Contains 1 table…

Geographic information literacy (GIL) is defined as the possession of concepts, abilities and habits of mind that allow an individual to understand and use geographic information properly. This paper reports the results of an online survey undertaken to get expert input into specifying the concepts and abilities associated with GIL that should be…