Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Typical is the very open atmosphere during discussions, and the good relationshipbetween staff and students. The very active student organisation for geographers,which organises many social and scientific events during the year, has been successfulin bringing staff and students together. Many staff members were active in thisorganisation during their studies.d) Level of the staff as a network: Good practices and regular lunch meetingsEach 4−6 weeks during lunchtime a meeting for the teaching staff is organised,where good examples of innovations are shown and discussed. On average aboutfifteen teachers attend these meetings, and experience of these presentations of ‘goodpractice’ has been stimulating. Subjects that were discussed are: peer-assessment, theuse of e-learning, student-led excursions, student-led seminars, alternative writingassignments, experiences from Canadian geography departments.Evaluation and discussionThe introduction of the bachelor/master system in 2002 is a good example of usingthe opportunities of different levels to change the curriculum. Utrecht Universitychose to introduce a curriculum model based on small scale education (classes with25 students), active learning, and multiple assignments that would make it possiblefor students to compensate bad results during courses; this was necessary becauseresits were abandoned.The yearly staff meetings at the level of the Department were not only importantto inform the staff about all these changes, but made it possible to approve a newcurriculum that was acceptable to most staff members. The university, by meansof IVLOS, provided tailor-made courses that were helpful to modify the design ofcourses. Staff members appreciated the ‘down to earth’ approach: not too muchtheory during these courses, but a focus on training new techniques during ones owncourses. Teachers with special wishes asked for ‘personal consultancy’ by IVLOS.The university-wide conference days were useful to exchange ideas with universityteachers from other disciplines.After the introductory phase of the bachelor/master system several problemsoccurred. An increase in the number of assignments caused an extra burden for theteaching staff. Students complained about the lack of variety in assignments, teachersabout the low quality of work and the extra work-load. In the same period staff reductionsdue to cost-cutting measures were necessary. This led to intensive discussionswithin the staff (during the regular lunch meetings), but also with the student organisation.The result was a mutual effort of staff and students to investigate alternativeassignments, led by one of the teachers who had attended the CEUT-course.The general picture of professional development at the Department of HumanGeography and Planning is positive, but some final side-notes can be made. Thereis a discussion about costs and efficiency of the CEUT-course. It costs about 10,000euro per person, to be paid by university and faculty on an equal basis. For our facultywith two participants each year in the CEUT-course this means about 15 percentof the total budget for training. For the same amount of money more teachers could186