The event was part of the GEO 02 Technical Assistance Project of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History, in which universities from Chile, Argentina, Panama and the Dominican Republic participate.

Under the purpose of discussing the theoretical-practical training of future teachers of the Ped career. in Basic General Education and, specifically, around the concept of landscape as a transversal axis in the teaching of Geography, the Webinar “The Workshop Methodology as a Geodidactic instance for teacher training in the Basic General Pedagogy career of the University” was held. from La Serena, Chile.”

The occasion included the participation of Dr. Sandra Álvarez, who together with the future teachers of Basic General Education, Nubia Yáñez (Ovalle) and Muriel Pizarro (La Serena), presented the work "Didactic strategies for the development of comprehension skills Integrated Geographical Space: experiences from the Geography Didactics course. On the occasion, the academic detailed the focus of the Didactics of Geography course, a subject contemplated within the study plan of the career, and how work has been done to promote the teaching of this discipline in initial teacher training.

“In the course we have worked on the strategies of preparing learning guides for the development of geographical thinking and to improve spatial skills; deepen the Geodidactic Model in the skills of understanding and acting in the environment; and in extrapolating comprehension and acting skills from the near geographic environment,” she explained.

For their part, the students revealed the structure of the didactic guides that they have designed for their future classes, whose main objective is to develop spatial thinking in elementary school students, through methodological elements. "Throughout the course we have been able to deepen and put into practice different areas of this discipline, knowledge and concepts, such as what didactics is, which is very important for us as future teachers and we have been able to work on this in detail," said the future teacher, Muriel Pizarro.

“Through this structure and design of the guides, it is hoped to motivate the student. The first part of the guide is the incentive, in my case we have illustrations where the subject to be discussed is raised, complemented by a graphic representation and various activities to be developed. In addition, it has a space where an initial question is posed, whose objective is that the teacher can glimpse the skills that will be developed, and the student will be able to relate, compare, argue and communicate; At the end of the guide, you must answer this same question, but considering all the contents and information acquired (...) Finally, the guide includes a log, where the teacher can confirm if the student really understood the topics covered, and I feel that this stage is very decisive, because we will receive feedback which will allow us to improve those aspects that are not understood”, detailed the future teacher, Nubia Yáñez.

Likewise, Dr. Fabián Araya, who is also a member of the team, contextualized the relevance of the "Development of Geographic Thought in the classroom through Geodidactic workshops", whose purpose is to educate the community in terms of geographical concepts. "For us, geodidactic workshops are a very important methodology, especially at ULS, where we are trying to integrate disciplines with didactics, so this methodology allows us to advance in that perspective (...) If we associate the scientific and educational plane, geography It works fundamentally with concepts, such as local environment, geographic scale, concept of place and geographic landscape; and deep down, people who have knowledge have the power to carry out integration, association and understand their territory. Therefore, we are promoting the development of geographical thinking in people, who will acquire the power that having this spatial approximation gives them, ”he emphasized.

GEO project 02

The initiative titled “Geography as an educational science of the landscape: training of Latin American teachers in spatial skills for interdisciplinary knowledge of the environment, its risks and sustainability” is directed by Dr. Rosser Bianchi, and its main purpose is to enhance the teaching of geography and that the student learns based on meaningful learning.

A team of academics from the U. Nacional de Cuyo in Argentina participate in the project; Panama university; José Joaquín Hungría Morel National Institute, from the Dominican Republic; National university of Colombia; University of La Serena, Silva Henríquez University and the Arturo Prat de Iquique University of Chile.

Written by Daniela Ledezma, UGIP