Geomorphologia Slovaca et Bohemica 2/2012
Content/Obsah
MILAN LEHOTSKÝ: Methodological template for assessment of river morphology conditions .: Download PDF :.
RASTISLAV ČIEF - BRANISLAV NIŽNANSKÝ: Analýza geografického základného a všeobecného vzdelávania z hľadiska využitia pojmovej bázy geomorfológie .: Download PDF :.
SPRAVODAJCA ASG PRI SAV 2012.: Download PDF :.
Abstracts/Abstrakty
Milan Lehotský: Methodological template for assessment of river morphology conditions Geomorphologia Slovaca et Bohemica, 12, 2012, 2, 7 - 18. 1 fig., 1 tab., 32 refs.
River ecosystems remain enigmatic to many people, and are often seen as offering fewer benefits to society compared with lakes or terrestrial habitats. Fluvial geomorphology has established in the world as a modern dynamically developing discipline that was able to deepen and itemize its theoretical and methodological basis thanks to the most recent knowledge obtained by a detailed field research. The methodology of river morphology assessment consisting of comparison between the properties of river reach and reference reach conditions and based on ideas of the holistic understanding of river systems are designed. The proposed template includes guidance on sample site selection, field procedures and the scoring system for the assessment. The assessment is based on the principle that the highest quality is obtained when the morphological conditions are as close to the reference situation as possible and when the spatial variation is as large as possible. Key Words: river morphology, assesment, template
Rastislav Čief, Branislav Nižnanský: Analyses of the basic and general geographic education in terms of the use of the basic geomorphology concepts Geomorphologia Slovaca et Bohemica, 12, 2012, 2, 19 - 36. 13 figs., 47 refs.
The submitted paper describes and for the purpose of the didactics of Geography partially analyzes the current state of knowledge in primary and general geographic education at elementary and grammar school in Slovakia. The analysis is based on distinguishing and describing the structure of the conceptual basis of geomorphology, understood as the basis of factual and conceptual content of geographic education. The introduction covers the didactic-methodological aspects and the theoretical basis of the problem. Emphasis is being placed on the importance of the term relief (georelief, the Earth‘s surface) and the related terms in geographic education. According to the outlined theoretical concepts, we proceed with the research and the description of the conceptual basis of geomorphology in Geography textbooks. We briefly describe and analyze three levels of geomorphological knowledge in Geography textbooks for primary and grammar school as well. They are the basic level, whose chapters deal with geomorphology itself, then geomorphological concepts within the issues of human geography and physical geography, and finally the third level, in which we monitor geomorphological knowledge within the regional-geographic issues. The occurrence frequency of selected terms is being compared in charts in figures 4 – 6. The structure of the conceptual basis of geomorphology (and according to the authors also geography) in primary and general education was analyzed by means of association graphs i.e. conceptual schemas, which reflect the occurrence frequency of the terms in the analyzed text and associating of the terms into association (thematic) groups. Figure 7 depicts a conceptual schema prepared according to the textbook of Geography for the fifth grade, figure 8 according to the textbook of Geography for the first grade at grammar school except for the chapters dedicated to lithosphere and georelief which are depicted in figure 9. Analyzed texts, in addition to the unbalanced conceptual basis, present such a great volume of the terms that it is impossible to say that they are explained and learnable well. What exactly from the presented conceptual basis will eventually remain in the students’ memory and if any given findings bring some competence, is a subject to the further research described in the second part of this article. The question that consequently arose from the given facts was: how is an identified and described conceptual basis being acquired by graduates of thus constructed basic education. We conducted a survey of the problem in two ways. Students of the first year master teacher training study program in combination with Geography, were asked to prepare a conceptual schema associated with the term “Earth’s surface” so that they would find related concepts in Geography textbook for the 5th – 8th grade of primary school (RUŽEK et al. 2011, TOLMÁČI et al. 2010, RUŽEK and LIKAVSKÝ 2011). This seminar paper met the education objectives from the level “to understand” up to the level “to create” (ANDERSON et. al. 2001). Thanks to that task, the students‘ familiarity with the textbook, necessary for their education, arose to a better than standard level. The results of the image of conceptual basis of geomorphology were also obtained in students who had already passed professional bachelor state exam in Geography. The second aspect of the problem is presented on the results of about 100 students who started the study of Geography teaching in 2011 at the Catholic University in Ružomberok. The analysis focuses on these facts: selected parts of the diagnostic test (that is seen as a part of the preparation for the entrance test and is focused on geographic knowledge including geomorphology) carried out without previous training and students notification at the beginning of the studies, the entrance test conducted with the same structure and under the same conditions as the diagnostic test but after a lapse of two months, and the second entrance test conducted at the beginning of the second semester focused entirely on geomorphological and geographic knowledge, population and settlement i.e. compulsory disciplines, lectured in the second semester. Students training consisted of initial training and regular consultations while for the four parts of the test (knowledge, relationships, a mental map of Slovakia and a mental map of the world) there were textbooks with a detailed description of the tested facts available to students. In this paper we describe the knowledge state of students on their results in answering specific questions and the state of a mental map of Slovakia and the world in terms of geomorphological knowledge. In the second part, we present the results of the practical of Geography students of the first year master teacher training study program aimed at the analysis of geomorphological knowledge in Geography textbooks for primary school. In the conclusion, we highlighted the large discrepancy between the desired and actual achievements in basic and general education in the field of geomorphological factual and conceptual knowledge. Key words: geomorphological knowledge, didactics of geography, basic and general education, geographical textbooks, didactics goals, competences in geography education, effectiveness of education