The Problems of Geography Education and Some Suggestions

Overview & Synopsis

When teacher education programs in Turkey are scrutinized in detail, it can be seen that geography education is included in the teacher training programs of Geography, Primary School, and Social Studies. These programs aim to provide field knowledge, general culture, and field teaching skills. The success of geography teaching depends on defining the problems and suggesting solutions for these problems. In this study, 16 volunteer instructors from eleven different universities were taken as participants and semi-structured interviews were carried out with the group. The data obtained were analyzed by descriptive analysis techniques. Some problems on geography education were identified and possible solutions to those problems were suggested. The main problems are that instructors are not sufficient in geography education; that the removal of some geography courses negatively affects geography education; and that teacher trainees in the field have low motivation. It is hoped that the study will shed some light on training more skilful teachers in geography education.