Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Geography in Klaipeda University. There are also very few departments of relatedsubjects in the same universities. None of the other higher education institutionshave any geographical or even geography-related departments and actually thereare no geographical disciplines in their study programmes. Vilnius University hasthe oldest traditions in geography studies and at present it holds the strongest positionin Lithuania. Table 1 illustrates the situation in Geography teaching at VilniusUniversity.The methods of teaching in the whole of Lithuanian higher education includingVilnius University are very traditional – old fashioned lecturing dominates. Otherteaching methods involve seminars, practicals, field practice and self-learning(particularly when preparing project work) but their significance is less important.The main reasons why traditional lectures dominate are related to the lack of possibilitiesfor self-learning. Students don’t have sufficient reading materials, there are forexample very few text books in Lithuanian, which is related to the very low demand.Readings in English are also not readily available and on the other hand very fewstudents can read in English adequately enough. Modern teaching equipment likemultimedia projectors have only just been introduced in recent years, but at presentthey are used just occasionally. It seems that this situation will not change radicallyin the near future because above-mentioned reasons will not disappear overnight.Table 1. Personal structure of Department of General Geography of Vilnius UniversityLevelNumberof personsBachelor studies 110Postgraduate(Masters)Postgraduate(PhD)30Staff 186RemarksEvery year 30 students enter to the department and approximately25 receive bachelor diploma. It is 4-year studies.Up to 18 students enter the master programme and approximately12 receive master degree.Every year one or two persons enter to the postgraduatestudies, which last usually 4 years. VU is the only institutionwith the right to prepare PhD students in geographyin Lithuania.Stable number. Assistant professors prevail in the teachingpersonnel.However our department started to take part in the project raised by colleaguesfrom Turku University (Finland) in 1999. The project was organised as a part ofthe Baltic Sea Region Studies Programme and involved Universities from Finland,Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The programme mainly involved the internationalexchange of students between Baltic Sea countries. The main idea of this project wasto employ distant education techniques and methods for international collaborationin preparing geography students through international studies via virtual realitywithout physical journeys. The Internet and audio conferencing were the main toolsof learning. Finally two different disciplines of human geography were designed andhave been completed several times during the period between 1999 and 2004. Thiswas a completely different experience both for teachers and students. The main ideaof such learning, its advantages and minuses will be presented in the next section.113