Geographical and Environmental Education
The official name of the phd programme is Didactics of geography. Students are invited to conduct their own empirical research in the field of geographical and environmental education at all levels of education (primary, secondary, tertiary), investigating all of its aspects (learners, educators, curriculum and resources, school environment, pedagogy, policy makers, etc.). Research studies should aim to provide and distribute evidence and/or conceptually robust arguments and practices that will improve the quality of geographical education in national settings and internationally; for example, in the areas of:
(1) the clarification of the purposes and goals of geographical education;
(2) the development of various curricula and/or pedagogic and assessment practices;
(3) the deepening of a understanding of learning progressions;
(4) development in understanding of learners’ geographical knowledge and experience, including their misconceptions;
(5) the improvement of teacher education, linking innovative teaching practices to empirical research.
Some examples of more specific research topics are as follows:
- Geographical literacy;
- Curriculum development in different national and international contexts;
- General and specific skills in geography;
- Student (mis)conceptions in geography;
- Curriculum-making skills of geography teachers
- Students’ progression in geography
- Cognitive aspects of map work;
- Strategies in the development of student geographical thinking;
- Implementation of environmental education in teaching.
Supervisors: Dana Řezníčková, Miroslav Marada, Martin Hanus, Tomáš Matějček
Research team: GEEN – Centre for Geographical and Environmental Education
Open call(s) for PhD students: Student (mis)conceptions when working with maps, Student strategies for solving tasks with maps