The paper focuses on the representation of landscapes and the depiction of landscape features in the photographic images of textbooks, the perception, recognition and imagination of landscapes by the ...school population, and the possible link between both. The empirical element of the study is based on the case of Slovenia and includes quantitative and qualitative analysis of photographs in textbooks and questionnaires completed by primary and secondary school students (aged 10-18 years). The results show that the photographs emphasise natural, rural, and tangible aspects of landscapes, while students' imagination also includes urban, dynamic and, especially, intangible elements. We discuss the relevance of stability, generational gap, image retention, and recognisability. One of the key conclusions is that there is a dichotomy between the representation of landscape in textbooks and in students' imagination, but it is not clear-cut.
Several factors are bound to influence a young person’s decision to study a particular study programme, including his or her interests and commitment, abilities and skills, career prospects, family ...expectations, social pressure and peer influence, the information and advice available to him or her and financial constraints. To find out what factors contribute to adolescents’ decision to study geography and the career aspirations of future graduates and postgraduates, a survey was conducted in 2017 and 2020 at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana involving a total of 155 students in their first year of the first cycle and the first and the second year of the second cycle. The results will be of great help in the further development of the geography study, as knowledge of the factors influencing their decisions to study, as well as their career aspirations and expectations, will allow us to understand the low enrolment figures in geography studies in recent years (which are not comparable to those of the past in all three Slovenian departments of geography) and to find potential solutions or ways to improve the current situation.
Educators of future teachers are constantly faced with the changing demands of modern times in providing quality school education. The process of educating pre-service teachers involves many hidden ...aspects that even educators of pre-service teachers themselves are often unaware of, as they are subtly hidden behind likeable professional eloquence. For decades, the pre-service geography teacher education in Slovenia has been driven by the educators’ profound belief in the significance of preparing students for their future professions, regardless of the, often hidden, obstacles that they have had to overcome. Through a qualitative pilot study among former students on the geography teacher education study programme in Slovenia, we aimed to identify strengths and weaknesses of the existing programme and suggest possible changes that could lead to its improvement.
The ever-increasing mobility of modern society has a number of negative effects on space, the environment, health and quality of life. It is therefore crucial to raise awareness of the importance of ...sustainable mobility, part of which is effective and comprehensive education of children. The article presents some key findings of the Sustainable Mobility in Preschools and Primary Schools project, carried out in the period 2019–2021. We investigated whether gamified activities can change students' travel habits and whether the change in travel habits is influenced by their age. The study is based on the survey data from 28,043 primary school students (grades 1–9) across 220 schools (77.7% in rural, 22.3% in urban settlements). Employing paired-samples t-tests and one-way analysis of variance, the study evaluated the impact of gamified activities on travel habits. The results show that children can significantly change their traveling habits with the help of gamification. Although the greatest change in travel habits occurred during the implementation of the activity, the results suggest that more lasting effects can also be achieved. Furthermore, younger participants displayed greater responsiveness to the gamified interventions compared to their older counterparts. This research enhances the corpus of knowledge pertaining to educational strategies for sustainable mobility by providing insights from one of the largest projects to investigate the influence of gamified activities on children's commuting habits.
This paper addresses the lack of international knowledge and research in interdisciplinary curriculum development and teaching in the subjects of Physical Education and Geography. The authors ...analysed and compared elementary school curricular documents from two ex-communist countries, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovenia (an ex-socialist Yugoslav republic) to reveal how integration of Physical Education and Geography can be embedded at the policy level. A questionnaire survey among teachers examined how the integration is implemented in practice. The authors present some practical examples to show how Physical Education and Geography integration can be achieved. The findings of the study indicate that while interdisciplinarity is an important policy goal of the educational systems of these two countries, integration is not being implemented in practice.
In recent times characterised by rapid changes in knowledge, technology and also in values systems, children and adolescents with special educational needs have taken on a different place and role in ...the world compared to the past. Along with these changes, when it comes to people with special educational needs the ideas of integration, normalisation and, more recently, of inclusion have emerged and borne fruit. Through a qualitative pilot study we aimed to determine how geography teachers who teach in primary and secondary schools in Slovenia evaluate their own ability to work with students with special educational needs and garner their previous experience doing so. Geography teachers are aware of the importance of their tasks and accept them with full responsibility although they are critical about their own competencies. Among the main shortcomings of the current work in the inclusive school teachers mention an excessive number of pupils with special needs since the involvement of more than two pupils with different special needs can have a significant impact on their ability to achieve high quality teaching standards.
The publication is an outcome of activity of International Network C.A.L.M.A.Z, which deals with interdisciplinary cooperation in PE and geography. The authors are representatives of university ...departments in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Denmark. The publication aims to present how the participating countries approach, in their curricula, the cooperation in PE and geography. The cooperation is viewed from two perspectives – comparison of curricular documents help ascertain how this cooperation is embedded at the theoretical level. The questionnaire survey with teachers represents a probe into the realization form of the curriculum. In the conclusion, possible approaches to integration are discussed, and practical examples are presented.
The objective of this paper is to present part of the research results on Slovenian geography syllabi, which began in an online chat room in the framework of the Meeting of Slovenian Geographers in ...Maribor in September 2017. Afterwards, it expanded beyond the set framework and continued until April 2018 via the online group ‘Geolista’, in which geography teachers are included. The aim of the research was to determine what kind of syllabi geography teachers in Slovenia want for geography lessons at the primary and secondary levels of education. This paper presents the opinions of the respondents about the basic conceptual orientation of the syllabus for primary school, as well as about its foundation and scope. The respondents evaluated the adequacy of the existing elements of the syllabus and provided suggestions for supplementing/transforming it. The 122 respondents evaluated the existing concept of the geography syllabus for primary school as good, but at the same time, they expressed a wish for a more issue-oriented syllabus. The majority favours a more general and, above all, shorter syllabus for geography lessons in primary school, accompanied by a handbook on how to execute it. A crucial message is that any modernisation of the syllabus should be undertaken in a timely and systematic manner, with sufficient participation of all stakeholders.
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