Geographic Education

Geographical didactics as a discipline has undergone a decisive change in recent years. Not only are the social conditions of schools and teaching changing due to globalization and digitalization - geography teaching is also exposed to a fundamental change and transformation process, for which we would like to prepare our students in the best possible way.

To this end, we offer a broad spectrum of current geographic didactic discourses in our teaching in order to build up a basic theoretical knowledge of geography didactics, which is applied and reflected in practice in project seminars and practical phases. To this end, we collaborate closely with school practice, be it through practical school studies, the practical semester, guest lecturers from school practice, campus school networks, participative research projects with Potsdam schools (e.g. the project "Reflection in Digital Learning Cultures") or the dissertation project of Pola Serwene ("Understanding Geography through Bilingualism Using the Example of Transformation Processes of Selected Places") according to the design-based research approach in cooperation with Berlin schools.

The focus is on a constructivist learning paradigm that thinks from the learner's perspective and sees teachers in the role of learning advisors. The guiding principle of this geography didactics is education for sustainable development, which is integrated in the majority of our courses. 

In addition, subject-specific media education is a focal point of our working group, which is also anchored in the cross section of our studies. In our didactics laboratory, students regularly use mobile devices, an interactive whiteboard, digital, browser-based learning environments and "virtual reality glasses and cameras". However, the focus is never on technology, but always on geographical competence acquisition and reflective media use and design.

The basis for this is a high professional standard, as well as an understanding of geography didactics as an independent scientific discipline (no methodology).

In the field of research , the focus is on education for sustainable development, digital learning environments in geographical education, reflection and reflexivity, change and bilingual geography teaching as well as participatory research. Detailed information on our international and interdisciplinary research can be found on the pages Research Projects Topics and Research Topics.

 CV Prof. Dr. Nina Brendel