2012, Band 40 - Heft 3

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  • Publication
    2012Zeitschriftenartikel
    Schülervorstellungen über Geographie
    (Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät) Bette, Julian; Schubert, Jan Christoph
    The establishment of national educational standards and the re-orientation towards the achievement of competencies as the main goal of geographic education have raised the importance of meta-cognitive knowledge on geography as a subject. While in the area of school politics a general, yet controversial understanding of the subjectís nature has been developed through the national educational standards, only little is known by now about pupilsí conceptions on geography as a subject. In order to examine the studentsí perspective on geography, semi-structured interviews were conducted in the study followed by a qualitative content analysis of the transcribed interviews. The results show big differences between the studentsí and the scientific concept of geography. However, starting points for relating the different concepts to each other were recognized as well.
  • Publication
    2012Zeitschriftenartikel
    Schülervorstellungen zur eisigen Welt der Polargebiete
    (Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät) Conrad, Dominik
    Polar Regions are used by scientists as early warning system of global climate change, and their significance in climate change science should be reflected in the geography curriculum. Taking a psychology approach, the research looked at mental models as a representation of pupils’ starting points of learning. To date few research results are available on pupils’ perceptions of the Polar Regions and the cryosphere. This explorative study focused on year eight pupils identifying their conceptions of the Arctic and Antarctic. A key finding was that pupils often have analogue conceptions of the Polar Regions in both hemispheres. Typical mental models included the existence of a huge island, consisting of ice many hundred metres thick, icebergs as term to describe glaciers or seen as a relic of the last ice age and sea-level rising as a result of melting sea ice. These conceptions do not conform to existing scientific knowledge. This article presents the central results of the study and draws out implications and suggestions for associated changes in teaching. The article finishes with a proposed set of further research topics.