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Lecturer(s)
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Course content
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I. Geography as a science: Academic and popular geography. Geography as a perspective, not a body of facts. The production of scientific knowledge, the role of scholarly texts and how to work with them, research ethics. II. Geographical approaches and their brief history: Changes in geographical approaches over time. Differences between geographical traditions, in particular between Anglo-American and Czech geography. III. Key geographical concepts: Space, place, scale, region, landscape, environment and time. For each concept, its main conceptions and examples of its use in explaining phenomena of everyday life.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Lecture, Monologic Lecture(Interpretation, Training), Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming)
- Attendace
- 26 hours per semester
- Homework for Teaching
- 30 hours per semester
- Preparation for the Exam
- 34 hours per semester
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Learning outcomes
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The aim of the course is to introduce students to geographical thinking and to show that geography is not a body of facts about countries, cities and maps, but a distinctive way of understanding the world. The course first presents geography as an academic discipline: how it differs from school geography and from popular understandings of the field, how scientific knowledge is produced within it, how to work with scholarly sources, and what research ethics involves. Students then learn that geography is not a unified discipline and that its approaches change over time and differ between geographical traditions. The core of the course consists of seven key geographical concepts (space, place, scale, region, landscape, environment and time), which geographers use as tools for explaining the world. For each concept its main conceptions are introduced and illustrated with examples from everyday life, so that students understand how the same phenomenon can be viewed from different perspectives. The course fulfils key competences of the graduate of teacher education 1. Subjects taught and their mediation to pupils, 1.1. I understand the subjects I teach and continue to develop within them, 1.2. I didactically convey the content of the subjects taught to pupils in line with their educational needs, and 6.2. I work responsibly with information and digital tools, I value expertise and the role of knowledge in forming opinions.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student: explains how geography as an academic discipline differs from school geography and from popular understandings of the field, and shows what it means to look at the world geographically; describes how scientific knowledge is produced in geography and states the basic rules of working with scholarly sources and of research ethics; shows that geography is not a unified discipline and distinguishes how geographical approaches change over time and across geographical traditions; defines the key geographical concepts (space, place, scale, region, landscape, environment and time) and distinguishes the main conceptions within each of them; applies a selected geographical concept to an example from everyday life and uses it to explain the given situation; compares what different geographical concepts reveal about the same phenomenon and justifies why scholarly knowledge matters for forming an opinion.
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Prerequisites
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The course is designed as an introductory first-year bachelor course and does not require prior expertise in geography.
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Mark, Written exam
Knowledge covered by the lectures and the assigned literature. The course is completed by an examination. Successful completion requires passing a written test which assesses understanding of geography as a science and knowledge of the key geographical concepts, including the ability to apply them to specific situations.
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Recommended literature
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Castree, N.; Barnes, T., Salmond, J. (2025). Making Geography Matter: The Past and Present of a Changing Discipline. London.
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Castree, Noel. (2005). Nature. London.
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Couper, Pauline. (2015). A student's introduction to geographical thought: theories, philosophies, methodologies. Los Angeles.
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Cresswell, Tim. (2024). Geographic Thought: A Critical Introduction. London.
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Cresswell, Tim. (2004). Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA.
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Daněk, Petr. Geografické myšlení: Úvod do teoretických přístupů. Brno. 2014.
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Herod, Andrew. (2011). Scale. London.
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May, J.; Thrift, N. (2001). Timespace. London.
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Merriman, Peter. (2022). Space. London.
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Wylie, John. (2007). Landscape. London.
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