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Congratulations

You belong to a group of teachers who want students to know the answers to more challenging geography questions (“Why?” questions).

You enjoy solving geographical problems that pupils have to deal with. In your classes, students often work as real geographers. You create opportunities to work with text and other information sources, students independently collect data and then analyze it and draw conclusions.

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Your teaching often leads students to recognize and discover the interactions between people and the environment, or you deal with the causes and effects of geographical phenomena.

In addition to doing geographical research with your pupils, you are also interested in studying more general geographical topics, including in the teaching of regional geography. You and the pupils also spend more time studying selected places or regions in more detail, even at the cost of not having time to discuss other places or regions.

Example:

When information about a volcanic eruption appears in the media, you can immediately prepare a lesson about the processes that lead to the emergence of volcanic activity. In geography lessons, pupils deepen their knowledge of how volcanoes are formed and, above all, what are the consequences of volcanic activity for people’s lives and the surrounding environment . Using examples of specific places affected by volcanic activity, students demonstrate the relationships between the natural and social components of the landscape . In addition, students explain the pros and cons of living in places affected or threatened by volcanic activity. Pupils have the opportunity to think about it, why people live in the immediate vicinity of volcanoes, why, for example, there are fertile soils around volcanoes, how volcanoes can be used in terms of tourism and how people deal with the various consequences of volcanic activity on a local and global level. 

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Teachers focus on scientific reasoning and making connections

Assessment ?

To verify knowledge, skills (and attitudes), we focus primarily on the variety of interactions, the nature of interactions, the intensity of interactions and their visualization . 

We set the evaluation criteria as:

  • geographical in content: factual correctness, terminology, landscape typology, number of interactions, knowledge of the development of interaction, giving examples of interaction, description of the nature according to the regularity of interaction, distinguishing the intensity of interaction, reasoning (inference), 
  • competence:  accuracy, clarity, imaginativeness, finding background and evidence of interactions in sources,

For formative feedback, we recommend asking questions based on the evaluation criteria for each of the topics:

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Where did you see this interaction?

Is this phenomenon really caused by the interaction of man and nature?

What can you see in the landscape to understand what type of landscape it is?

What is typical of interactions?

How do you understand interaction?

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Teacher:

  • Primarily works with the relationship between people and nature
  • Thinks in relationships and contexts
  • Extends the curriculum from physical geography to the impact on people’s lives

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The interactionist is a teacher who bases geographical topics and explanations on the relationship between people and nature. Although interactionists work primarily with the links between people and nature, they do not search for the deep causes of these links. Interactionists always emphasize the impact of physical-geographical phenomena and processes on the life of people on Earth and often demonstrate the impact using examples from students’ everyday life. Interactionists think most of all concepts about the connections between people and nature, which according to some definitions, is the main essence of geography as a field. They know that geography is not only about explanation because it is impossible to justify its usefulness only on explanation. Interactionists focus on geographical phenomena and processes (less, for example, on the states of the world). Therefore, they always ask how the discussed phenomena and processes are connected with the activities and lives of people and evaluate the nature of these relationships. If the teacher is discussing desert biomes, he will not forget to discuss how people have adapted to life in deserts. In the case of discussing plate tectonics, the teacher does not forget to discuss how volcanic activity affects people’s lives – negatively and positively. On the one hand, volcanoes threaten people’s lives and destroy property, and can cause the collapse of cities and nations, which is rarely represented in the teaching of geography. On the other hand, volcanoes have created fertile soil and thus indirectly support the existence of successful civilizations. Interactionists often deal with what people should do when a flood, avalanche, tornado, or wildfire occurs. This is something that is not very well represented in the textbooks and curriculum, although it is precisely in teaching conceived in this way that interactions are most evident. This concept has great potential for building a positive image of geography as a useful science.

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Student:

  • Enticing and useful topics
  • Changes in nature as a result of human activity
  • The core of geography lies in relationships and contexts

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Students enjoy this concept of geography because it is about life, about real relationships and connections between people and nature, how man changes and transforms nature and the impact of physical-geographical phenomena on people’s everyday life.

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Teacher:

  • Favouring an anthropocentric view
  • Less emphasis on basic geographical knowledge
  • Geography is fun because it is about life

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Interactionist teachers often favour an anthropocentric view. They don’t deal with sustainability too much – they take environmental problems as a reality, they often claim that it is a problem, but on the other hand, they state that people have to make a living somehow, work somewhere, and get energy from something. Teachers are often deeply immersed in the topic being discussed and neglect the fact that the pupils have not acquired basic geographical knowledge, or possibly have no idea what the aim of the lesson is. The interactionist often asks the pupils where Geography is or what is about the geographical topic being discussed. Unfortunately, the interactionist conception of geography teaching is often not appreciated by parents or students. Teaching geography in this sense is similar to an article in National Geographic magazine or a documentary on the Discovery Channel. Teachers present attractive and useful topics to students.

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Student: 

  • May not realize they are learning
  • Does not have clear and concrete knowledge that he is supposed to learn by heart
  • Geography can be seen as a leisure subject

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Students are usually so preoccupied with interactionist teaching that they do not realize that they are learning. Students enjoy learning about the effects of humans on nature. But if you ask the students later what they learned, they often have no idea. A fun and useful geography lesson from the student’s point of view often does not bring concrete knowledge that could be evaluated in terms of their memory acquisition or newly acquired skills. There is a danger that students may see geography as nothing more than entertainment.

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Detailed results with commentary and practical recommendations.
... Well, the students will simply love you, because they will enjoy your teaching!