According to the ministerial order that provides for geography the knowledge of "elements of physical and human geography", the course aims to provide the foundations of general geography, with specific reference to the contents and skills that are addressed in nursery and primary school; it also proposes to convey a critical knowledge of the main aspects, processes and problems faced by geography, with references to the Italian and European context. Therefore the students will acquire the ability to illustrate the main natural and human processes that contribute to the formation of territories and landscapes and will be able to highlight their mutual relations.
The “Indicazioni Nazionali per il Curricolo” document proposes, for geography, among the goals for the development of skills at the end of primary school, the ability to identify the elements that characterize the landscapes, with particular attention to the Italian ones and the similarities and differences compared to the main European landscapes. On the basis of these indications, the course aims to encourage the development of skills and knowledge useful for the analysis and critical interpretation of territorial processes and their landscape manifestations, at the Italian and European scale. These skills will be functional to design learning units effective with respect to the formative and educational needs of primary school students. At the end of the course, students will be able to: interpret the main territorial processes that take place at the Italian and European scale; critically address the main problems of human, political, economic and cultural geography that concern Italy and Europe; appreciate the complex relationships between the components of the Italian and European landscapes; critically examine contemporary problems and perspectives, with a transcalar approach, from local to global; appropriately use geography specialized lexicon.
Teaching activities will be organized in order to encourage active learning by students. For this reason, there will be moments of workshop activities that will be conducted on problem-based methodologies. The workshop activities will be organized for small groups and will aim to encourage reflection on the concrete educational application in primary school of the knowledge acquired during the moments of frontal teaching and through the study of teaching materials that will be provided by the teacher through the AulaWeb platform.
The course offers to study the main physical and human processes that affect the geography of Italy and Europe. In particular, it focuses on the following themes: - the idea of Europe; - the European Union; - the population of Europe and Italy; - urbanization in Italy and Europe; - the rural in Europe and Italy; - Mediterranean Europe; - Europe outside Europe. On each thematic area reflections will be proposed for small groups, aimed at the development of educational activities concretely applicable in primary school.
Exam program for attending students: - Teaching material (texts, papers, videos, slides) uploaded by the teacher on AulaWeb. - Critical reading of at least one of the following texts:
Exam program for NON-attending students: - Teaching material (texts, papers, videos) uploaded by the teacher on AulaWeb. - In-depth study of the following text:
- Critical reading of at least one of the following texts:
Ricevimento: Student reception is held, by appointment, on the Teams platform on Tuesdays from 2:30 to 5:30 pm.
NICOLETTA VARANI (President)
GIACOMO ZANOLIN (President)
FEDERICO DE BONI (President Substitute)
MARINA MARENGO (President Substitute)
MICHELA BADII (Substitute)
March 09, 2021
GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY AND OF EUROPE
The exam will be oral in two moments: first, students will have to present a brief personal proposal for a didactic activity aimed at applying the knowledge acquired during the lessons to the primary school, through the study of the didactic material provided by the teacher and the critical reading of one of the indicated texts; at the end of the presentation, through a brief interview, the acquisition of knowledge related to the geography of Italy and Europe will be verified, also through the critical analysis of images, graphs, tables, maps. Non-attending students, before taking the exam, are invited to contact the teacher to make an appointment.
The exam will verify: - the acquired knowledge related to the geography of Italy and Europe; - the ability to critically analyze the main problems faced by human geography, identifying potential applications in education; - the ability to build didactic activities aimed at applying in primary school the acquired knowledge about the geography of Italy and Europe The evaluation will take into account the following elements: - argumentation and critical reasoning skills on the problems studied; - quality of exposition and appropriate use of specialized lexicon; - ability to identify possible didactic and educational applications of themes and problems related to the geography of Italy and Europe.
It is possible to take the exam only after having acquired the laboratory credit in Didactics of Geography.
All students periodically consult the page of this course on the e-learning portal (accessible from the University website or at the address: www.aulaweb.unige.it). All information and materials are a teaching on this site.
