Image of Geography from the perception of students: what influences it and its consequences

KORVASOVÁ, Veronika. Image of Geography from the perception of students: what influences it and its consequences. In IGU-CGE 2023 in Oxford: Geography Education for Athropocene. 2023.

Basic information

• Original name: Image of Geography from the perception of students: what influences it and its consequences
• Authors: KORVASOVÁ, Veronika.
• Edition: IGU-CGE 2023 in Oxford: Geography Education for Athropocene, 2023.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50301 Education, general; including training, pedagogy, didactics [and education systems]
• Country of publisher: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Education
• Keywords in English: image of geography; student; geography education; questionnaire; EFA
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

Geography as a school subject, despite its synthetic and interconnected nature, is facing disinterest from pupils and its position in the curriculum is beginning to be questioned. Globally, we can observe a decline in the number of hours of geography taught in schools, and the Czech Republic is no exception. According to recent findings, only 58% of Czech pupils enjoy geography and only half of the students find geography an interesting subject (CSI, 2019). This article explores the current state of geography from the students' perspective and what influences it. The image of geography is defined within the social construction of reality theory (Berger & Luckmann, 1991) and postfeminist theories that trace the perception of an undervalued group seeking 29 of 65 a voice. The main factors were identified in a systematic review (Korvasova, 2021) and consist of the usefulness of geography, the teacher, teaching methods, family background, and achievement. This paper presents the findings of a questionnaire survey conducted in the first quarter of 2023 among 1% of Czech lower secondary students in grades 8 and 9 (13-15 years old). The data shows that the decisive factor is the teacher and his/her personality. Which is closely related to the usefulness of geography. It shows that if students can relate things to everyday life, they are more interested, and their image of geography is higher. The study gives insight into the issues of conceptualizing geography teaching to make it more relevant to the needs of the Anthropocene and today's students.

Links

• MUNI/A/1435/2022, interní kód MU: Name: Rozvoj vědeckého myšlení: Podpora studentských aktivit tří profesních mikrospolečenství

Investor: Masaryk University, Developing scholarly thinking: Encouraging student activities in three professional micro-communities