Do personal experiences have an impact on teaching and didactic choices in geography?

Factors influencing teachers’ selection of content in geography teaching is a fundamental didactic matter. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether Swedish geography teachers’ informal and formal experiences have influenced their interest in geography and if so, in what way. The r...

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Published inEuropean Journal of Geography Vol. 4; no. 6; p. 6
Main Authors Molin, Lena, Grubbström, Ann, Bladh, Gabriel, Westermark, Åsa, Ojanne, Kaj, Gottfridsson, Hans-Olof, Karlsson, vante
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 2015
Subjects
reflection
informal and formal experiences
geography teachers
selective traditions
subject skills
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Summary:Factors influencing teachers’ selection of content in geography teaching is a fundamental didactic matter. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether Swedish geography teachers’ informal and formal experiences have influenced their interest in geography and if so, in what way. The results disclosed that informal experiences like outings, holidays, and childhood memories have a significant impact. The results also revealed that childhood experiences might increase the comprehension of how nature and mankind are connected, and how various places differ. Selective traditions showed to be strong, i.e. geographic names and map reading were prioritized while at excursions, physical geography was particularly dominating. We argue that in the geography teacher education, didactics should include methods for field studies, giving emphasis also to the part dealing with human geography. Forthcoming teachers need to reflect on how to make didactic choices in order to renounce the selective traditions in the subject.
ISSN:1792-1341