Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

mistakes and obstacles to learning. Only this way the teacher can design and plangood experiences and involve students in its development.With these learning experiences students may develop the capacity of going fromperceived and experienced space to rational and thinking space, developed through dataanalysis and investigation, to reach integrated space and action space, in which theywill be asked to show their newly achieved geographical skills and competences.Figure 2. Scientific methodology and design of exciting geographical learning experiencesTheory into practice: a Portuguese experienceDuring 2004 we had the opportunity to put theory into practice. At the annualseminar on “Geography didactics” twenty trainee teachers designed educationalprojects and implemented them in the classroom with Key-Stage 3 (12−14 years old)students, during the school term. These projects involved the analysis of social andenvironmental problems in the area of Lisbon or its surroundings. They includedas examples:• The role of river Tagus in the organization of economic activities in the axe ofVila Franca de Xira,• Impacts of tourism in Castelo de Bode Dam,• Sustainable development of National Park of Aires and Candeeiros,• Effects of urban pressure and beach tourism in changing land use in Costa deCaparica and• The localization of a regional shopping centre in an area of extreme ecologicalvulnerability in southern margin of the metropolitan area of Lisbon.The approach of these problems were designed in the context of the PortugueseNational Curriculum, and took into consideration the flexibility allowed by the20