Modern School Geography and Inquiry Education

Abstract

School geography is a subject which has more possibilities to modernize the teaching than other subjects. It is thanks to the interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary character of the geography science in general. Modern geography could benefit mainly from the cross-curricular links. At the same time it applies modern, but concurrently established and verified concepts as for example inquiry-based education, philosophy for children, global development education or the use of mobile applications et al. The inquiry-based education (IBE) methods deepen pupils’ interest with exploration, they develop their critical thinking and teach them to orientate within the information smog, and they make school and teaching closer to real life. Presented case study is an example of use of the IBE teaching activity at the border geography and biology. The direct and real contact of pupils with the observed animals indicates that this kind of education awakes pupils’ interest in living nature. The teaching activity motivated the pupils to develop affection for animals and to get to know their zoogeographic area of habitat. At the same time, the activity is a perfect example of the so-called “inadvertent learning” (Petty, 2013).