1249 | | Geography education as an integral part of modern European education – Why do we need Geography? | Ana Pejdo (1); Jadranka Brkiħ-Vejmelka (2)
European educational system in the 21st century is faced with numerous challenges. Notwithstanding the potential Geography has as a standalone school subject on all educational levels there are more and more examples when it is merged with other subjects sometimes losing its main focus; the interconnection between Earth physical characteristics and human impact. If we define geographic approach to understanding the world within two question: where (something happens) and why (it happens there), then Geography interests in respect to numerous other scientific disciplines can be described as understanding interaction of social, physical, technological and political circumstances.Being interdisciplinary in its core, Geography provides teachers with vast array of contemporary teaching methods they can use. If observed on European level the position of Geography is not the same in all countries. There are numerous differences in the number of school hours, the order of themes within curriculum, the portion of extra curriculum activities related to Geography, etc. In some countries Geography is an obligatory subject during primary and secondary school education while in others this is not always the case. In the new Croatian Geography Curriculum, the purpose of studying and teaching Geography is to acquire geographical knowledge and skills, so that students can become competent members of the society, aware of their responsibilities towards the environment and society, respecting sustainable development, actively participating in reinventing a functional spatial organization at different levels, starting locally and going globally.The aim of this section is to compare not only the position of Geography as a school subject in different European countries, but also to introduce and to determine best practices of updating Geography curriculum facing challenges of contemporary world issues such as climate changes, sustainability, energy efficiency, new geopolitical order.
Ana Pejdo (1); Jadranka Brkiħ-Vejmelka (2)
(1) Department of Geography University of Zadar, (2) Department of Teacher Education Studies in Gospić Universoty of Zadar
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