Source Book On Geography Teaching

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30951, 6 January 1966, Page 7

Source Book On Geography Teaching

As part of its programme to help teachers everywhere to profit by one another’s experience, Unesco is issuing a series of studies on the main subjects in the school curriculum. These will take the form of hand-

books of suggestions rather than specific re- - commendations for any particular method or syllabus—a policy with which few will quarrel.

The geography source book was prepared by the commission on the Teaching of Geography of the International Geography Union. In 1961, about 450 copies of a preliminary version, prepared by seven co-authors, were sent to geographers and institutions throughout the world, and the resulting comments and suggestions were taken into account in the definitive edition.

The object of the book is to give teachers practical advice on how to improve their teaching methods, and is based on the belief that geography is a subject that can and should play a vital part in developing among young people understanding and respect for other countries and peoples, and in nourishing the idea of human interdependence and solidarity. The tone is didactic and there is a certain militancy in the repeated insistence that geography must be regarded as an independent subject and not neglected as a mere Cinderella.

But these are minor points and count little beside the wealth of help and stimulation the book provides and its stress on a constantly critical and dynamic approach. Above all it is likely to be a godsend to geography teachers working with restricted equipment, perhaps without wholly ideal training, in comparatively underprivileged areas.

At the same time as It gives them the means of keeping in touch with the most up-to-date developments, it stoutly maintains the virtues of individual ingenuity and independence. The crusading conviction that animates the book is so contagious that even an amateur longs to rush out and do-it-himself —to teach astronomy heroically in the bush with the aid of a box of matches and a piece of string, or bring a lost tribe to realise its place in the family of nations by patiently showing it its relationship to the wilderness.

The book starts off with a definition of the “geographi-

cal outlook” and a defence of its importance in contemporary education. Geography is properly to be regarded as a synthesis involving the characteristics of a country, region or the whole world, a study of the occurrence and extent of various phenomena and the relationship between them, and the science of land use: the history of man's transformation of his natural environment to suit his needs. Detailed examples are given to illustrate these three aspects of the subject

The source book then examines teaching techniques, again with carefully worked out and useful examples designed to make lessons lively and concrete. First comes direct observation based on the pupil’s actual environment, then indirect observation based on maps, photographs or films and statistical data. With very limited equipment such as a few simple instruments—thermometer, barometer, rain gauge, compass, etc.—wall maps, atlases and collections of rock and plant specimens, it is possible to teach children not merely facts but accustom them to carry out their own research and make their own discoveries. Even teachers trained and working under ideal conditions will find some things to refresh them in this part of the book: it is likely to prove invaluable to those working in isolation under difficulties.

The next sections on teaching materials and the “geography room,” contain some good practical suggestions, especially for Improvisation where necessary: the “haves” must not fret at passages which, though they may seem obvious to them, will be of immense help to the “havenots.”

There is a useful chapter on the organisation of teaching and the construction of syllabuses. Then the book ends magnificently with a section on “sources of documentation” which brings even the most remote teacher within reach of the latest ideas and information. These pages are an extemely reassuring and inspiring example of the sort of solidarity that the teaching of geography is here exhorted to encourage. The select list of periodicals and other carefully chosen bibliographical information, together with “helpful addresses” connected with teaching materials, form an exemplary conclusion to a book which stresses the part individual effort must play in achieving the common good —Barbara Bray.