Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

6. An important issue in the curriculum of pedagogic subjects is also the diagnosisof the pupil’s/student’s development and the ability to modify teaching strategiesdepending on the results of teaching.7. Among the contents of training prospective teachers, there is a motto: Planningyour professional development. University preparation is thus treated as only thefirst stage of becoming a teacher.8. In classes, many problems are solved through team work, which develops the skillof effective co-operation that is so important in the work of the modern teacher.9. It is also very important to develop communication skills that will allow efficientexchange of information and feelings in the direction of teacher-pupils/students,teacher-parents, teacher-representatives of the local environment.As the above shows, modern curricula/syllabuses for the subjects of pedagogicblocks follow the changes in school geography. A fact of the greatest significanceis that beside the traditional methodology course, with the training of the pupil’sefficient work organisation skills, the classes prepare prospective teachers to makeautonomous choices. Emerging from the programs analysed is also the modelof a teacher-creator who forms the didactic process, adjusting it to specific conditions.At the same time, attempts can be noticed to develop in prospective teachersan attitude of being open and ready to improve both their methodological competence,and their own approach. It can be said that the curricula for educating teacherstakes into account the needs of modern school education. They prepare the studentfor taking the first steps in the profession. At the same time, they are convinced ofthe need for continuous improvement and training. Maybe more effort should be putin the area of co-operation between the teacher and pupils/students on one side, andlocal community on the other.There is, however, an evident lack of adjustment of the subject-matter preparation.It is a fact often stressed by didactics research (Stańczyk 2002, Szkurłat 2004). In mostof the higher education institutions, geographical studies curricula contain subjectscorresponding to narrow scientific specialisations. As a rule, physical geography ispresent in wider range. There is also a lack of subjects integrating individual piecesof knowledge. Polish university geography shows a particular reluctance towardsdemonstrating relationships between human activity and the environment. Such anapproach is treated as a sign of geographical determinism, in its pejorative sense.The student has no occasion either for getting to know the problematic formulation ofthe contents, because the contents of the university subjects are very often arrangedin a schematic encyclopaedic way. The same refers to the problem of using differentspatial scales. At higher education institutions, such an approach is quite rare.Besides, education at the higher level is oriented towards the passing of knowledge,while the sphere of the student’s skills remains acutely neglected.The concept of school geography, in respect of the approach to the contents, runsahead of university practice. Higher education schools are institutions with greatcurriculum/syllabus autonomy. They are not included in the reform on the groundsof administrative decisions. They reform themselves in their own pace, more withregard to research and finance than education. Besides, they function independently70