Geografija Evrope v šoli

iskanje temeljnega učbeniškega pristopa in izbora problemskih tem za gimnazijski učbenik

Abstract

The geography of Europe stands out among other themes within the scope of Slovene high school (secondary school) programmes, since substantial changes to the geography curriculum are most urgent. Social change in Europe during the last decade and a half has been significant. It is not the intention of this paper to offer a definitive suggestion of changes in the teaching plan, for this is clearly a task of too great pretension, but rather to elaborate a list of current topics which, assuming that certain postulates hold, could be included in a new textbook of the geography of Europe. Before the preparation of the list this study focused on the establishment of a basic approach to textbooks from the point of view of the internal organization of learning topics that would best suit Slovene pupils and teachers. A new method of simulating textbook approaches has been employed. Pupils were asked to evaluate three textbooks with different organizational schemes of the same selection of topics, representing three textbook approaches. The first approach is thematic: topics included the relation of man and nature, environmental issues, social and political development, ethnic conflicts, etc. The other two approaches were regional. The second textbook comprised the same topics as the first one, but they were organized according to European regions (northern, western, 'Middle Europe', etc.). The third approach derived from the second; topics were organiyed not only accordingly to European regions but also with respect to individual European states with short presentations of their 'geographical context'. The latter approach was suggested by the pupils themselves during previous group discussions organized by the author of this study. The results have shown convincingly that both pupils and teachers favour this particular approach. To a slightly lesser degree the same textbook approach was also favoured by the pupils attending the secondary school Zvezna gimnazija in zvezna realna gimnazija za Slovence in Klagenfurt, Austria, where only the thematic approach is being used. The list of topics in the second part of this paper is elaborated according to a postulate that the concept of teaching geography is becoming increasingly thematic, exemplary and problem related and ought to focus primarily on current key issues. The list does not necessarily represent a selection of the didactically most appropriate topics, since this question still needs to be answered within the field of didactic theory. The selection was made on the grounds of the presence of certain topics in local and foreign textbooks from 36 European states. Most of the textbooks considered were recently published and designed for pupils of higher age. Selected topics are arranged as the table of contents of a hypothetical textbook of the geography of Europe. The complete list is too extensive to be included in a single textbook if the number of lessons of geography per year remains unchanged. That is why less important topics are specially marked. The last part of the paper discusses the question of including issues concerning Slovene interregional areas into a textbook of the geography of Europe. A review of essential Slovene textbooks of both the geography of Europe and that of Slovenia (Yugoslavia before 1991) has revealed that so far within the scope of geography as a school subject the entire theme of contact regions on both sides of the Slovene border has been reduced almost exclusively to a question of national minorities. It has been established that textbooks of the geography of Slovenia cover this particular topic much more thoroughly than textbooks of the geography of Europe. Since the latter are already overburdened with other topics it seems reasonable to continue including much of this topic into textbooks of the geography of Slovenia

Keywords

regionalna geografija;geografija Evrope;geografski učbenik;didaktika geografije;metodologija;

Data

Language:	Slovenian
Year of publishing:	2007
Typology:	1.02 - Review Article
Organization:	UP - University of Primorska
Publisher:	Centro di ricerche scientifiche della Repubblica di Slovenia
UDC:	371.671.1:372.891
COBISS:	1397459
ISSN:	1408-5348
Views:	3503
Downloads:	36
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	English
Secondary keywords:	regional geography;geography of Europe;geography textbook;didactics of geography;methodology;
URN:	URN:NBN:SI
Type (COBISS):	Not categorized
Pages:	str. 349-362
Volume:	ǂLetn. ǂ17
Issue:	ǂšt. ǂ2
Chronology:	2007
ID:	1739371