Title：Fresh Thing for Freshman: Exploring a Blended Method on Teaching the History of Geographic Thought
Journal/Publisher：J. Geogr. Sci
Year：2018
Authors：Chao Ye, Xinrong Huang, Yuxin Pan, Shan Yang
Abstract
It is necessary for undergraduates majoring in geography to learn the history of geographic thought. Although there are different cultural and educational backgrounds between China and the West, teaching methods such as text teaching, students’ presentations and group learning are suitable for most of teachers and students even from different countries and regions. The blended method is helpful to popularize history of geographic thought and improve the level of teaching and learning. Owing to lack of the class on the history of geographic thought in countries like China, the authors try to explore a blended method for the first-year geography undergraduates and to assess the effects of this teaching based on some questionnaires. The students have different benefits and responses to this class. A special group consisting of one teacher and several undergraduates does the research and coauthors the paper through making questionnaire, interviewing and analyzing materials from 67 freshmen majoring in human geography and geography science (teacher-training) in China. For the undergraduates especially from the countries like China, it is well worth making the history of geographic thought become a necessary and interesting class.
Keywords: history of geographic thought, teaching methods, text teaching; group learning, China
