Geography at University

Making the Most of Your Geography Degree and Courses

Gordon Clark, Terry Wareham

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9780761940265, 9780761940258
• eBook ISBN: 9781446228630
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

`This is an essential easy-to-use guide to geography. It is unique in providing not only passive advice but also offering activity based guidance to both potential and current geography undergraduates. Geography at University is wide ranging in its approach offering assistance to all; from those who need help with their dissertation to those writing their curriculum vitae. It is an all encompassing text which offers a fresh and original outlook on geography at degree level? - Lorraine Craig, Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers)

Geography at University will show students how to do better at university when studying for their degree in geography.

It explains how university - and geography at university - differs from the subject at school. At university, students are taught new topics in different ways and will be tested on different abilities - the ability to understand, to explain and to apply knowledge; rather than just on the knowledge itself. This means that students need to learn the subject in new ways: Geography at University shows them exactly how to do that.

Being at university is a phase between school and career, this book will show students how university geography builds on school geography and gives them skills employers will be looking for when appointing graduates.

Geography at University reviews each of the main methods by which students are taught geography - lectures, tutorial, fieldwork, practicals and projects - and explains what tutors will be trying to do during these sessions so that students can gain the most from teaching.

Geography at University explains what tutors are looking for when assessing students works through their essays, examinations, oral presentations anddissertations.

There is more to getting a degree than just studying geography. There is much that students can do through a gap year or taking paid or voluntary work to give them an edge when applying for jobs after graduation, and Geography at University explains how they can make the most of these opportunities as well.

INTRODUCTION

	1.1	What this Guide is trying to do
	1.2	The Guide’s limits
	1.3	Making this your Guide
	1.4	How to use the Guide
	1.5	Further reading
	1.6	Where next?

Geography is the subject which holds the key to our future.

Michael Palin, broadcaster and author

1.1	WHAT THIS GUIDE IS TRYING TO DO

This Guide has been designed to help you study geography and related subjects at university. Whether you have already started or are about to start a geography degree, the Guide aims to let you make the most of your time in higher education. Whether geography (or a part of it such as human or physical geography) is the whole of your degree or a substantial part of it, this Guide shows you how to get more out of your time at university. We hope you will enjoy studying for your degree and become a better geographer and more employable. The information and advice here should be as relevant to part-time students as to full-time ones; and to those taking a full geography degree as to those following only a few geography courses or modules within a different degree scheme. So how is the Guide going to help you?

First, we want to explain what higher education, focused on geography, is trying to do and how it will help you develop into a resourceful, versatile and self-confident person (we discuss this further in Chapter 2). This chapter also discusses how to study and study more effectively in terms of what the research literature tells us about the different ways in which people learn things.

Second, the Guide tells you what qualities employers are looking for in their prospective staff, so you will know what to aim for during your three or four years at university (see Chapter 3 for details). The study of geography is unlikely to take up all of your time at university, nor should it. So in Chapter 6 the Guide suggests several ways in which you can take the initiative and use your spare time to enrich your period at university (and the rest of your life) and improve further your chances of getting the good job you want. Geography, we believe, can really let you get more out of life overall as well as being useful in career terms.

Third, the Guide de-mystifies the various elements of your degree and of the geography courses and modules which make up your degree. It explains why staff use devices like lectures and tutorials, examinations and essays; what they are using them for; and what you can do to get the most out of them. This is what we explore in Chapters 4 and 5. We believe that it will help you if educators tell you why they are teaching what they do, why they teach it that way, what they expect of you and what they expect you will gain from it.

Finally, the Guide provides you with a framework to help you measure your personal progress towards your goals. At various points during this Guide we shall talk about the value of assessing your progress and reflecting on how you are getting on. There is a grid in Appendix A which gives you a structure for this. In Appendix B there is a log where, under various headings, you can add to your personal record of achievements as your degree develops, year by year.

This Guide is necessarily short, which is no bad thing since you can read it quickly. It is not a complete geography degree course in one slim volume. It is an overview – something that is often missing – that shows you how all the components of a geography degree fit together. It suggests some steps you can take to make the most of your time at university studying geography.

1.2	THE GUIDE’S LIMITS

So, this Guide has been designed to operate within certain limits:

• it does not teach you geography as such; it is about how to study geography which is what the geography textbooks don’t tell you;
• it deals mostly with how to study geography rather than with how to study in general, although many of the issues here are applicable to other subjects;
• it does not cover the ‘lifestyle’ issues of being a student (e.g. your social life, diet or sport);
• it provides general guidance on geography degrees and geography courses/modules, and obviously cannot deal with the unique features of individual geography departments.

1.3	MAKING THIS YOUR GUIDE

You are not ‘just another student’. You are you; different from other students in terms of your current skills, your interests in life and personal values. These differences will affect how you interact with your geography degree. So we have written this Guide in a way that lets you ‘customise’ it. There are sections throughout the Guide where we invite you to pause and think about yourself, your academic progress and your personal development. Here is your first chance to do this.

ACTIVITY 1

Try to get clear what your starting point is. You might like to jot down here your thoughts on five points.

1) Why did you come to university?

2) What do you hope to get out of your university degree?

3) Why did you choose geography rather than another subject?

4) What would you like to be doing five years after graduating?

5) As well as earning some money, is there anything else you would like to be doing or contributing to society, family or friends in five years’ time?

1.4	HOW TO USE THE GUIDE

To get the most out of this Guide we suggest that you use it in two ways. First, it would be useful for you to read through the whole Guide fairly soon, to get an overview of the way we see geography degrees working. A geography degree has many elements which combine to form an integrated ‘package’ of higher education. This Guide shows you how the various elements of the degree combine and why staff use them. Second, you can use the Guide as a reference work, to be taken off your shelf whenever you need ideas on a specific topic (e.g. how to improve your essays).

If you are just starting at u...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 What Geography in Higher Education is About
• 3 Geography, Geographers and Your Future Career
• 4 Understanding the Learning and Teaching of Geography
• 5 Understanding How You Will Be Assessed in Geography
• 6 Other Useful Activities for Getting a Job
• 7 Where Have We Got To?
• Appendix A Self-assessment of skills
• Appendix B Your Personal Record
• Appendix C Essays – the good and the bad
• Appendix D Web resources for geographers
• Appendix E Good examination answers
• Appendix F Marking criteria for dissertations
• Appendix G Giving a seminar presentation – some practical advice
• Further reading
• References
• Index