Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

the research stream, students are provided with further basics in order to be able todo the professional Masters education in the future. Now we think that this streamalso needs some central points, however, it will strongly depend on what kind ofMasters education the institutions prepare for. According to existing national ideasthe main points are likely to be:• rural and environment geography,• area and settlement development,• social and natural science, and• further fundamentals of informatics of this profession.Students can leave the third differentiated stream for the labour market having aprofessional qualification. According to our ideas, they can be employed for exampleas geoinformation specialists, managing area development and tourist or environmentalgeographical managers. During the training, several professional outputscan be ensured within the framework of studies. In the module of differentiatedprofessional knowledge students will have to obtain 65−75 credits, however, thereare possibilities to transfer credits between the different streams, thus students donot have to decide “early” in their studies, or rather there is no deadline determinedwhen s/he should commit her/himself to a stream. 5% of the credits are optionalduring the training programme. Certainly we have tried to elaborate the streams inmore detail including the students’ competences, as well. Thereinafter, the structureof the programme geography and that of another major in the teaching training(major/subject x) is presented:Undergraduate education (180 credits)80−100 credits in Geography55−65 credits in a professional subject of major x, which contains the core materialof the undergraduate education of major x10−15 credits in the teaching module10 credit in thesis (in Geography)10−15 credits optionalMaster education (120 credits)15−25 credits in Geography40−60 credits in minor x30−40 credits in teaching module10 credits in thesis (in Geography or minor x)4−6 credits optionalTeacher training is being carried out in two majors in the spirit of uniform teachertraining within a disciplinary framework. During their studies, students thus can enrolfor teaching courses or for the courses of their other major (minor) at any time.The real challenges are only now arising for the institutions. They shall put intotheir structure this “from-till” system. It is a big question whether the institutionshave enough power to use this structural reform also for updating the course contentas well, or will they decide to choose the well-beaten path they had been using untilnow. In our view, the fact that the practical training was immature has establishedpressure to undertake action, however, also modernity and diversity of Masters level167