Geografie 2024, 129, 411-434
Curiosity in geography education: A systematic review
, Michaela Horutová
Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of Geography, Brno, Czechia
Received July 2024
Accepted November 2024
Curiosity is a human quality manifested as the desire to discover new information, things, or experiences. The nature of the discipline of geography, as well as the diversity of geography education, offers a wide range of opportunities for the exercise of students’ curiosity. Geographical education highlights geographical thinking, which cannot be tackled without engaging with students’ curiosity. What do we know about student curiosity in geography education? Using a systematic review and hermeneutic content analysis, we investigate how scholars have defined curiosity and its importance in geography education, identifying four important areas of geography education closely related to the development of student curiosity: inquiry/questioning, teaching with avatars, fieldwork, and learning with technology. We interpret these four areas in relation to applied geography, geographical thinking, and the roles of geography teachers. Research has shown that incorporating curiosity into geography education can change traditional perspectives on the use of technology, observation, and questioning.
Keywords
geographical education, curiosity, student’s curiosity, geographical thinking, applied geography, questioning, systematic review, hermeneutic content analysis.
Funding
The article was supported financially by the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University for its publication.
