Very few studies have been conducted on students' definitions of geography. The purpose of the present study was to add to the existing literature by exploring Omani students' definitions of geography. Participants were 477 students of grade 6 (ages 11-12) and grade 10 (ages 15-16) in one school district in Oman. They had been taught…

Previous studies have shown that there is what has been called a "gap" between environmental knowledge and a willingness to act in a pro-environmental manner. For the individual, this gap is probably the result of the huge complexity of factors that affect behaviour. The way in which this "gap" is sometimes identified in the…

In this article we explore students' attitudes towards solidarity, as an aspect of sustainable development (SD), and analyse how students can be described as solidary. Our motive is to obtain better knowledge regarding important preconditions for education for SD. We conducted a quantitative study with 782 responding upper secondary students…

The current study explores the effectiveness of involving students in environmental science projects for their environmental knowledge and attitudes towards science. The study design is a quasi-experimental pre-post control group design. The sample was 62 11th-grade female students studying at a public school in Oman. The sample was divided into…

This article reports on the results of a survey of Australian primary pre-service teachers' experiences, conceptions and perceptions of geography. Research was conducted with two cohorts of undergraduate primary pre-service teachers; one group in second year and another in the final year of a four-year teacher education course. The findings…

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…

This paper presents findings from research on students' general environmental concerns, experiences, beliefs, attitudes, worldviews, values, and actions relating to climate change. Data was gathered from a sample of 646 seventh-grade students. The findings indicate that students identify climate change as a consequence of modern life. They…

This article evaluates effectiveness of Google Earth (GE) as an educational tool in secondary school geography lessons and whether it contributes to students' achievement. A GE exercise was developed regarding the types of coastal formations. It was implemented in a ninth-grade geography lesson in three high schools in Turkey. The students…

Geography is one of the most important school subjects for the development of global awareness and international understanding. Curricular concepts and pedagogical strategies for developing global awareness through geography abound. What is largely unknown, however, is how young people make sense of the world in which they are growing up and if…

This study aims at identifying the effects of the mind-mapping technique upon students' perceptions of inquiry-learning skills, academic achievement, and retention of knowledge. The study was carried out in the Science and Technology course. A quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test and post-test control group, which was selected…

This paper summarises the findings of research conducted with one cohort of English undergraduate primary teacher trainees on point of entry to a 4-year course. The research examines the perceptions held of geography as a subject discipline and the purposes of teaching the subject. Two hundred and eleven trainees were asked to define geography and…

A 44-item questionnaire was designed to determine students' views about how useful various "specific" actions might be in helping to reduce global warming, their willingness to undertake these various actions and the extent to which these two might be related. The instrument was administered to students in Grades 6 to 12 (N = 1532) from 12 schools…

This study attempted to investigate Hong Kong junior secondary students' conceptions of China before and after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, with a view to finding out any changes in their conceptions, and if any, the factors that might have contributed to these changes. The study found that, over the years from 1997 to 2009, students…

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…