Teaching Geography Using Films: A Proposal

Abstract

Films are often used in schools to illustrate geography, but doing so may favor mainly passive learning. An experiment with twenty-eight pupils aged thirteen years (a whole class) had the aim of using cinema to promote active geographical learning. First, it was ascertained what the dominant geographical stereotypes were among the pupils and the films that conveyed these stereotypes. Then a traditional lesson using textbooks was given but this proved inefficient at removing stereotypes. More creative work was needed. Since film planning forces students to actively apply their geographical knowledge to solve technical problems (locations, screenplay, sets, etc.), making a movie was planned.

The Effect of Digital Documentary Production through Field Work on Geography Students’ Problem-Solving Skills

“…Apart from this, students took their own learning responsibilities, learned by searching and had permanent information in a constructive learning environment. Study results show similarity with other studies dealing with project-based learning model and/or educational short film projects (Dede & Yaman, 2003;Coşkun, 2004;Kajder, 2004;Ferster et al, 2006;Ranker, 2007;Kalaycı, 2008;Urbano & Urbano, 2008;Siegle, 2009;Di Palma, 2009;Bıyıklı et al, 2008;Alper, 2011;Akbaş, 2011;Swan et al, 2011;Ay, 2013;Bene, 2013;Morgan, 2013;Demiray, 2013;Çıralı, 2014;Göçen, 2014;Kotluk & Kocakaya, 2015;Akbaş et al, 2015;Urhan, 2016;Kızıltaş, 2017;Yiğit et al, 2017).…”

“…Students who perceived geography as a class lesson, had the opportunity so that they can practice their knowledge at the field, remember previous geography knowledge and relating them to the scenes in the field, and establish relations of geography with other areas. These findings are paralel to the research of Garipağaoğlu (2001), Gök & Girgin (2001), Doğanay (2002), Demiralp (2007), Di Palma (2009), Balcı (2010, Tuna (2012) and Şahin & Özey (2013). The video creation process has the potential to provide much more academic benefits.…”

“…So that they can find solutions, to the technical and content problems of films by using their own geographical knowledge. Students should create their own films to improve their critical thinking skills as well as general cinema knowledge (Girgin, 2012;Swimelar, 2012;Metzger, 2010;Di Palma, 2009;Birkök, 2008). In this sense, it is expected that the students will develop their media literacy and critical thinking skills.…”

Video Documentaries in the Assessment of Human Geography Field Courses

“…Such assessment has not been greatly discussed in the literature. While there has been some writing on its value to school children (di Palma, 2009), and the use of audio and video podcasting across different disciplines (Salmon & Edirisingha, 2008), the discussion of creating videos has mainly focused on research (e.g., Banks, 2001;Rose, 2006;Pink, 2007;Gandy, 2009). An exception is the article by France and Wakefield (2010) on implementing digital stories in the assessment of a first year module entitled 'Foundations for Successful Studentship' with c. 70 students per year.…”

“…Visual methods have recently gained popularity in human geography research and teaching (e.g., Ansell, 2002;Rose, 2006Rose, , 2008Latham & Mccormack, 2007;Sanders, 2007;di Palma, 2009;Gandy, 2009). Based on the production and study of images such as photographs, videos, paintings and maps, this growing interest is closely linked to wider debates about the visual nature of the discipline (e.g., Rose, 2003;Matless et al, 2003;Dodge & Perkins, 2008).…”