Abstract
This symposium was organized to discuss with Association members the findings of the Geographical Education Committee of the Association of Japanese Geographers. Since the first meeting in September 1986, the committee has held thirty meetings. In addition, an earlier symposium, an international meeting, and a local joint meeting with the Toyama Earth Science Society were organized. Through these meetings, the committee examined, analyzed, and discussed the following themes:
(1) Geographical education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.
(2) Geographical education in terms of physical environments.
(3) Geographical education in terms of area study and excursion.
(4) Geographical education and placenames.
To expand these themes, the following reports were presented (the names with asterisk are those of members who served as reporters):
(1) T. Kubota*: A review of the background of the “Geographical Education Committee” and its activities.
(2) H. Iwamoto* and K. Yoshida: A proposal for improving geographical education in primary schools and a report on a pilot survey of place-name recognition among the public-non-geographers.
(3) K. Asakura and K. Hirasawa*: A proposal for improving geographical education at the lower secondary level.
(4) T. Inui, T. Kusakabe, T. Kubota, Y. Nishiwaki, and H. Mori*: A Proposal for improving geographical education at the upper secondary level.
(5) R. Asakura*, T, Kimoto, I. Komine, Y. Sato, T. Shirai, A. Shinohara, and M. Nakayama: A proposal for training undergraduates to be better qualified geography teachers.
(6) T. Nishizawa, T. Bekki*, and Y. Yamada: A proposal for improving geographical education in the liberal arts course in tertiary institutions.
(7) T. Shirai*, M. Nakayama, T. Nishizawa, and other members: A proposal for improving geographical education in terms of physical environments, especially at the upper secondary level.
(8) T. Inui*, T. Kimoto, I. Komine, A. Shinohara, Y. Yamada*, and other members: Some proposals for improving area study and excursions at various school levels.
After a comprehensive comment was given by T. Nishizawa, a final free discussion was held among participants. An hour was not necessarily enough an in depth discussion, but the following points were stressed:
(1) Many questions focused on the relationship between the proposals of the committee and the “Revised Course of Study” which presented the Ministry of Education's national guidelines for the curriculum although the Association took a neutral position with regard to the Revised Course of Study.
(2) The activities of the committee should be continued after March 1990, when the current members' terms will expire.
