This book presents the distinctive theoretical and methodological approaches in geography education in South America and more specifically in Brazil, Chile and Colombia. It highlights cartography and maps as essential tools and provides a meaningful approach to learning in geographical education, thereby giving children and young people the opportunity to better understand their situations, contexts and social conditions. The book describes how South American countries organize their scholar curriculum and the ways in which they deal with geography vocabulary and developing fundamental concepts, methodologies, epistemological comprehension on categories, keywords and themes in geography. It also describes its use in teachers’ practices and learning progressions, the use of spatial representations as a potent mean to visualize and solve questions, and harnesses spatial thinking and geographical reasoning development. The book helps to improve teaching and learning practices in primary and secondary education and as such it provides an interesting read for researchers, students, and teachers of geography and social studies.

La pandemia ha cambiado nuestras vidas, pero nos ofrece la oportunidad de modificar las rutinas de enseñanza para mejorar la educación ciudadana desde la geografía e historia. Nuestra vinculación como docentes en la formación del profesorado y en el Geoforo Iberoamericano nos hace reforzar la didáctica como instrumento válido para producir el conocimiento y las habilidades básicas para los futuros docentes interesados en la geografía escolar de Iberoamérica. Así, la enseñanza geográfica necesita una práctica para desmembrar las noticias, comprobarlas, contrastarlas y entender su significado en el espacio territorial local y global; es decir, identificar y ponderar la relevancia y trascendencia de los hechos que se producen. Este libro responde al convencimiento que sus autores confieren a las tareas realizadas por el alumnado en general y los estudiantes de la formación del profesorado en particular. Se trata de “poner los tubos de neón” sobre quienes son uno de los ejes centrales del futuro de la educación, que por el desarrollo de su función docente serán los constructores no solo del futuro escolar sino del social y ciudadano.

This book presents the core concepts of geographical education as a means of understanding global issues from a spatial perspective. It treats education, supported by high standards, approaches, methodologies, and resources, as essential in exploring the interactions of the world’s human and environmental systems at local, regional, and global scales embedded in the nature of the discipline of geography. It covers topics such as climate change, sustainable development goals, geopolitics in an uncertain world, global crisis, and population flows, which are of great interest to geography researchers and social sciences educators who want to explore the complexity of contemporary societies. Highly respected scholars in geography education answer questions on key topics and explain how global understanding is considered in K-12 education in significant countries around the globe. The book discusses factors such as the Internet, social media, virtual globes and other technological developments that provide insights into and visualization – in real time – of the intensity of relationships between different countries and regions of the earth. It also examines how this does not always lead to empathy with other political, cultural, social and religious values: terrorism threats and armed conflicts are also essential features of the global world. This book opens the dialogue for global understanding as a great opportunity for teachers, educators, scholars and policy makers to better equip students and future citizens to deal with global issues.

This book informs an international audience of teachers, scholars and policymakers about the development of learning progressions for primary and secondary geography education in various countries and regions of the world. The book represents an important contribution to learning progressions research and practice. The different chapters explore how curriculum standards and frameworks in different countries portray progress and sophistication in the learning of geography. The book compares educational systems and how teachers and curriculum developers use the concept of “learning progression” to guide educational practices. As an approach to educational research, learning progressions offer considerable potential for understanding how children develop understanding of geographic concepts and practices across grade bands and in relation to national geography standards. The book analyzes the general conditions of learning progressions within the context of a globalized world. Important themes are addressed such as: knowledge acquisition in formal education; measuring learning progressions in informal settings; learning progressions for one curriculum standard or several standards; conditions to assess progression in the learning of facts, concepts, and skills; and multiple pathways for understanding or learning geography. The contributing authors are experienced scientists in the field from all around the world giving specific insights into the practices of their countries. The book appeals to K-12 teachers, school administrators, policymakers, researchers in geography education, professors and lecturers at universities around the world.

Opportunities for developing innovative approaches in teaching and learning geography have been rapidly increasing in recent years. This is in part because of the spread of new technologies that allow access to geographic information and geographic geo-media resources. These new tools offer broad access to information and open data sources. They have revolutionised the way in which teachers of geography can work with pupils and students. “Education for Digital Earth” is now possible. As such, the exclusive use of traditional approaches to the teaching of geography is no longer reasonable today. The European Commission-funded network initiative, digital-earth.eu, promotes innovation and best practices in the implementation of geo-media as a digital learning environment for school learning and teaching. This book, supported by EUROGEO, analyses the main challenges facing geographical education – curriculum, methodology, teacher education and training and geospatial technologies – and illustrates different examples of the use of geoinformation in geographical education in several European countries.

This book results from the work of the Commission on Geographical Education of the International Geographical Union. Part 1 focuses on the distinctive traditions of school geography. Part 2 reviews the state of school geography on a broad continental basis, including national case studies by local experts. The final chapters extrapolate from the present and point to likely future developments in the subject, again with examples drawn from various countries.

In this book geography educators from around the globe discuss their research into the power of geographical thinking and consider successful strategies to implement, improve and advance geography education in research and practice. It addresses key topics in geography education, such as multicultural competence, the role of teachers, the geography curriculum, spatial thinking, geographic information systems, geocapabilities, and climate change. At a global level the contributors and editors bring together the most advanced collection of research and discussion surrounding issues in geography education. The book will be of interest to geography education researchers worldwide, including academics at university and teachers in schools, as well as professional geographers with an interest in education.