Geography education. State and prospects for the development of secondary geographic education in russia
A good geographer is extremely demanded by the labor market today.
Major geological faculties are divided into 4 directions, which are related only in science, with their practical spheres of activity diverging very strongly: social (socio-economic) geography, physical geography, hydrometeorology and cartography. These are completely different paths further in life.
Public geography is a huge and very interesting world. Depending on their narrow specialization, geographers work in strategic, transport and marketing divisions of industrial companies and banks (industrial geographers and transport workers), consulting companies and economic divisions of government bodies (investment geography, regional analysis and regional policy), urban planning and urban planning (urban geography , cultural geography), foreign and domestic policy, agro-industrial complex, tourism and many other industries. The economic geographer differs in that, in addition to knowledge of the industry (economics / sociology / political science, etc.) and possession of mathematical and field research methods, he has the skills of territorial synthesis - the ability to see manifestations of universal laws and local specifics in the processes taking place in a particular place.
Physical geography is a direct path to a variety of environmental projects, environmental protection, industrial impact assessments, engineering surveys in the design and construction of large facilities, as well as work in the field of heritage conservation, including in nature reserves and national parks. The physicist-geographer is well versed in botany, soil science, soil mechanics and geology, geochemistry; he spends half his life in the field, and the other half in processing field results and analyzing space images.
Cartography is a huge and growing market for online cartographic services, navigation systems, cartographic support for various surveys, and, in particular, the creation of geographic information systems. Cartographers are also involved in technology for sensing the Earth from space. The preparation and work of a modern cartographer is primarily associated with computer science, mathematical modeling, and map design.
Hydrometeorology is a special area of research related to the study of the atmosphere, land waters and oceans. All these areas are highly mathematized and related rather to the study of physics, mathematics and computer science. Hydrologists are needed to conduct hydraulic engineering surveys for the design of industrial facilities, prevention of hazardous phenomena, creation of reclamation systems, etc. Meteorologists and climatologists are engaged in weather forecasting, studying the processes of global climate change, forecasting dangerous atmospheric phenomena. Oceanologists study the processes taking place in the seas and the ocean: currents, waves, temperature and salinity, the interaction of the ocean and the atmosphere, ocean resources and the possibilities of their use.
Complementing Ruslan's answer:
I know that education at Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University is quite strong and fundamental. This is a legacy from Soviet education, when, at the exit from school, each person had at least a geographical picture of the world. Now in Britain I was asked several times if there really is such a country - Kazakhstan? They thought she was invented in the cinema for the entourage. They asked in decent establishments at the reception and at the bank.
In general, in the first year at Moscow State University they teach a little bit of everything, then the student makes his choice in a specific direction. Actually, answering the question whether it is promising, I will say yes. You are given knowledge, there are all conditions for growth, then everything depends only on the person. There are all sorts of examples of what graduates have achieved (for example, Slipenchuk is a local celebrity). This knowledge seems unnecessary or outdated to anyone, but it gives a complete comprehensive understanding of how the world works. This quality is highly valued in almost all areas of employment.
To answer
Generally speaking, many have become known outside of geography. I will cite only a few public figures:
Dmitry Oreshkin is a well-known political scientist and specialist in electoral geography
Alexey Novikov is the Dean of the Higher School of Urbanism at the Higher School of Economics, and previously the Director of the Russian Thomson Reuters and Standard & Poor's
Leonid Smirnyagin - specialist in federalism and political geography, member of the Presidential Council under B.N. Yeltsin
Natalya Zubarevich - Leading Specialist in Economics and Politics of Russian Regions
Rayr Simonyan - Head of Morgan Stanley and UBS Banks in Russia
Evgeny Gontmakher - Deputy Director of IMEMO
Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya is one of the leading specialists in the field of demography and the study of migration
Yuri Vedenin - Director of the Institute of Natural and Cultural Heritage
Svetlana Mironyuk - Director and Editor-in-Chief of RIA Novosti
and many others.
To answer
Comment on
Geography education provides a fairly wide range of opportunities. The geographer is by nature a universal specialist, can be useful in completely different areas from the construction and design of everything you can think of to the application of skills in economics and politics. I have been working in cinema for 10 years, but I graduated from the Faculty of Geography, and I have never regretted it, because higher education is not only professional skills, but mainly a way of thinking, and geography structures brains very well, teaches us to think systematically, to analyze, look at all phenomena very broadly.
As you know, geography is divided into physical and economic, these are completely different sciences, physical geographers are hydrologists, glaciologists, meteorologists, geomorphologists, oceanologists and other specialists, without whom no ecological expertise is possible. When constructing bridges, buildings, laying roads, pipelines, a specialist assessment is needed. Otherwise, when landslides, heavy rains occur, the river will change its course ... irreversible consequences may occur.
Cartography is now developing thanks to satellite navigation, but all these Yandex maps, Google space images need to be stitched together, processed and maintained by these systems. A lot of mining, forestry, agriculture (which we almost do not have left) is based on geography.
In economic geography, a very promising topic - the geography of cities, city branding, urban planning - is also, for the most part, the area of responsibility of geographers. Political, electoral geography - forecasting and assessing the results of elections, the political state of the regions - is a very promising and extremely interesting area. In any branch of the economy, the best will be the specialist who understands geography, geography is experience and good intuition in any area where some kind of logistics is implied. Sociology without geography is simply nowhere. Any public opinion poll because it is directly related to the specific conditions of a particular place. And it would be good to understand and take this into account when conducting any survey.
In general, this is only 1% of the possibilities, of course, everything depends on the interests of a particular person. It should only be understood that a geographer is a person who prefers to judge the world by his own impressions and research, therefore, the geophysical department of any university is a field department, and the geographer's field of activity is necessarily associated with moving around the world (sometimes not in very comfortable conditions).
By the way, geographers also take root very well in filmmaking and the field of cinema, the organization of filming on location is a kind of field work with people and devices.
Probably everyone has already heard the news about the introduction of the compulsory exam in geography. There were also many speeches by President V.V. Putin in various forums, where he openly expressed support for geography and talked about its prospects. So getting a geography education makes sense. However, it is worth thinking about which direction we are talking about. There is a pedagogical direction (teacher education) and geography (economic geography, social geography, physical geographers, geoecology, cartography, geodesy, hydrology, hydrometeorology, palegeography, paleolimnology, climatology, geomorphology, historical geomorphology, ecology, landscape science and this is not the whole list of specialties ). It should be borne in mind that teacher education is currently lagging behind in its development, old standards, not to mention teaching methods and the lack of field research in the curriculum and the ability to conduct research in school. Therefore, if you want to be a teacher of geography, then it is worth thinking and thinking very well. Geography teachers who also travel on field research, schools collaborating with the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Geographical Society can be counted on one hand. And do not think that if you come across an elite school, the best in the district, in a provincial city, then you will be given at least some prospects to work the way you want. It is quite possible that in this very "elite" school you will sit like in a swamp and hate the university years spent studying this very promising science.
Century, in educational institutions of Russia - in 17. (for example, at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy). In the 17th century. the first textbooks on geography appeared, for example, translated into Russian at the beginning of the 18th century. "General geography?" Dutch scientist Varenius. Already at the beginning of the 18th century. geography was an independent academic subject at the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, at the St. Petersburg Maritime Academy and was provided for. V. Lomonosov in the draft curriculum of Moscow University (where he read it. V. Savich since the opening of the university). By the end of the 18th century. in geography (courses of which were already read in many universities in Western Europe) three directions were clearly outlined - physical geography, economic (more often called at that time statistical) and regional studies. Physical geography was taught at universities in the faculties of natural sciences, statistics and regional studies - in the faculties of literature (history and philology). The formation of geography as a university science in Russia was recognized by the charter of universities in 1804, according to which two departments were established at the faculties of speech: world history, statistics and geography; history, statistics and geography of the Russian state. However, the training of specialists-geographers was not envisaged, educational courses in geography were "auxiliary" in the preparation of historians and philologists. In the countries of Western Europe, the predominant direction in geography was regional studies, at the end of the 19th century. in Great Britain and France, major summaries on regional studies are published (H. J. Mackinder,. Vidal de la Blache), in Germany - on geomorphology (A. Penck), general geography (A. Zupan), comparative geography (K. Ritter), population geography (F. Ratzel). Significant influence on G.'s development. in high school was a German geographer. Humboldt. French geographer and sociologist. Reclus was organized in Brussels by a special higher educational and scientific institution - geographical. In the United States, unlike in Europe, geography developed in close connection with cartography, especially in the system of the military department. In 1863, departments of physical geography were created at Russian universities, and in 1884, departments of geography and ethnography. In this regard, a number of geographical disciplines were introduced into the curricula of universities — general physical geography, geography of Russia, geography of the continents, anthropogeography, ethnography, history of geography, and others. played by the scientific schools of the universities of Moscow (D. Anuchin, A.A. Borzov, A. Barkov, M. A. Bogolepov, A. A. Kruber,. ... Dobrynin, S. G. Grigoriev, M. S. Bodnarsky) and Petersburg (A. Voeikov, I. Brownov, V. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, S. Berg, M. Shokalsky, etc.) ... At the Novorossiysk University (Odessa) G. o. led by G. I. Tanfilyev, in Kazan - PI Krotov, in Kharkov - A. N. Krasnov and others. At the beginning of the 20th century. a big role in G.'s improvement of the lake. the school played new textbooks and teaching aids by A. Barkov, S. Grigoriev, A. Kruber and S. Chefranov; training practice has been introduced into the curricula of geographical specialties of universities, training stations have been created; training of specialists with G. about. for research and pedagogical work was carried out at the physics and mathematics faculties. The position of the highest G. about. changed dramatically after the Great October Revolution. In 1918-25, the Geographical Institute (higher educational institution) worked in Petrograd, at which a research institute of geography was established in 1922, and in 1923 a similar research institute was established at Moscow University. By the end of the 20s. at universities, the curricula and programs of geographical specialties, especially economic geography, have been radically restructured (N. N. Baranskii); compulsory practice of students in expeditions was introduced. In the 30s. independent geographical departments were created, and then geographical and geological-geographical faculties of universities. In subsequent years, the specialization of graduates of geographical faculties deepened, new departments arose. The modern typical structure of geographical faculties at USSR universities includes specialties: physical geography, economic geography, geomorphology, meteorology and climatology, land hydrology, oceanology, and cartography. In the USSR, geographers are trained by universities and pedagogical institutes in full-time, evening, and correspondence learning systems. The largest centers of G. of the lake. are Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev universities and pedagogical institutes. Some universities have departments of geology and geography and biology. University students in their first years receive broad general geographic training, in senior years they study a cycle of special (profiling) disciplines, work in seminars, undergo special practice (geological, geodetic, complex geographic in research institutes, schools, expeditions, etc.), perform and defend term papers and theses in their chosen specialty, pass state exams in social disciplines. The training of geographers in pedagogical institutes is built without subdivision into narrow specialties. A significant place is given to the study of pedagogical disciplines (psychology, pedagogy, teaching methods) and pedagogical practice. Many pedagogical institutes train teachers in two profiles: geography and biology (geography-biological, natural-geographical faculties), history and geography, etc. The curricula of all pedagogical institutes also provide for field practice at educational bases, local history and in the form of long-distance excursions ( expeditions). The term of study for geographical specialties is 4-5 years. In 1970, geography teachers were trained by 33 universities (18.7 thousand students, the annual graduation of about 1.6 thousand specialists) and 77 pedagogical institutes (40 thousand students, the annual graduation is 6.2 thousand specialists, including about 300 with two specialties), admission to geographical faculties (departments, specialties) about 10 thousand people. A significant place is occupied by special geographical disciplines in the curricula of a number of related specialties in universities that train cartographers, hydrologists, meteorologists, climatologists, land surveyors, agronomists, foresters, economists, transport engineers, etc., as well as in secondary specialized educational institutions (topographic, hydrometeorological, s.-kh., etc.). In higher educational institutions, as well as in the USSR Academy of Sciences and the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, there is a postgraduate course, which trains scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel in the geographical sciences. The training of specialists in geography is carried out in all countries of the world where there are universities and pedagogical institutes. In the socialist countries, G. about. develops in all branches of geography. Large centers of G. of the lake. are the oldest universities - in Berlin (the capital of the GDR), Leipzig, Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, and others. In capitalist countries, the nature, direction, and forms of state education. are quite different. For example, in the largest US universities (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc.) there is a narrow specialization (geomorphology, meteorology, hydrology, economic geography of industries); in France (Sorbonne and other universities), the complex geographic (regional) training of geographers prevails, psychology, geography and a foreign language are of great importance. Pedagogical practice in the learning process takes less place than in the Sov. universities and pedagogical institutes. General G. about. gives a secondary school. In the USSR, geography as an independent academic subject is systematically studied in grades 5-9 (an initial course in physical geography, including information about the topographic plan and a geographical map, knowledge about the spheres of the Earth and methods of their study, etc.; physical geography of the continents, the USSR, economic geography of the USSR and foreign countries). In some capitalist countries, school curricula and textbooks on geography have a regional geography direction. Lit .: Baranskiy N.N., Historical review of geography textbooks (1876-1934), M., 1954; his, Economic Geography in High School. Economic geography in higher education, M., 1957; Geography at Moscow University for 200 years (1755-1955). Ed. ... K. Markov and Yu. G. Saushkina, M., 1955; Butyagin A.S., Saltanov Yu.A., University education in the USSR, M., 1957; Soloviev A.I., The current state and tasks of higher education in geography. Materials for the 4th Congress of the Geographical Society of the USSR, L., 1964; Education in the countries of the world, M., 1967. A.I.Soloviev.
Report
"The role of geographic education
in the formation of a modern personality ”.
At the meeting of teachers of geography of the Stavropol Territory
Rezanova Oksana Georgievna.
Geography is one of the oldest sciences on Earth. But this does not mean that it has lost its relevance and significance in modern society.
In connection with the growing need to create a single educational space, which ensures the formation of a versatile personality of a modern student, I would like to note the serious problems and contradictions that have developed in modern geographic education, and draw attention to the need to increase the level of geographic literacy of students. The solution to the problems of modern Russia largely depends on how the future generation of citizens of our country will acquire knowledge about the territory, natural resources and productive forces of the Motherland, about the population of our multinational state, about the diversity of regions of the largest country in the world. It is geographical knowledge that provides incentives for conscious creative activity for the benefit of the Motherland. Geography education is a cornerstone of social development of the individual and education of citizenship.
Priorities of modern school geography education.
1. The educational process is reoriented to:
Development of productive thinking,
Formation of key competencies,
Formation of key intellectual skills,
Introduction of profile training.
2 . Innovation processes:
Informatization of education
New ways of organizing the educational process
Independent cognitive activity of students
Project activities
Integrative approaches to content
Communication activity.
3. Learning outcome:general literacy (general competence) of students, which is ensured by:
Key intellectual skills
Universal ways of activity, ways of cognition and interaction
Basic structure-forming knowledge (have a general understanding of
Knowledge system)
Social experience
Adequate self-assessment of one's own (mastered) knowledge system.
But, in spite of all of the above, modern geography, especially in recent years, unfortunately, is experiencing a serious crisis, exacerbated by major changes in public thought, the introduction of Russian higher education into the European educational space, and a decline in status and prestige in society. From my point of view, the following reasons influence the weakening of the worthy place of geography in society in the conditions of modernization of education:
1. A sharp decrease in teaching hours for the study of the elementary course of physical geography in grade 6 (from 2 hours to 1 hour per week) - a basic course for the entire school geography, with a huge conceptual apparatus. However, the volume of educational material in school textbooks remained practically the same, while no one thought about the personality of the student, the complication and overstrain of his mental activity, besides, the normal process of thinking is distorted. The same collision when studying the course "Physical geography of continents and oceans" in the 7th grade: reduction of teaching hours from 3 to 2 hours, preservation of the old volume of theoretical, conceptual and nomenclature material.
The use of such "experiments", of course, negatively affects the degree of assimilation of geographical knowledge by schoolchildren. And all this despite the fact that they have not yet developed analytical and abstract thinking, spatial and temporal representations, insufficient life experience and outlook - all this causes students to find it difficult to understand concepts, patterns, they memorize a huge number of words for a short time. This situation is the main reason for the crisis in school geography.
2. Geography has completely become an unclaimed science and discipline by school graduates when choosing geography as the Unified State Exam and by applicants to higher educational institutions. instead of geography, when entering economic specialties, universities, with the consent of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, defined social studies. Nevinnomyssk is characterized by a decrease in graduates taking the exam in geography, and this trend continues. And one more note, rarely any of the strong graduates chooses geography as an exam, there are more and more cases of choosing this subject by students with a weak level of preparedness and a low quality of geographic knowledge.
3. Geography as an independent academic subject is not included in the list of compulsory academic subjects at the basic level (the so-called invariant part of the curriculum) of secondary (complete) education. In the variable part, the course "Economic and Social Geography of the World" was reflected in the volume of 70 hours at the basic level of training in non-core (universal) education (general education profile).
All this taken together reduces the prestige of geography as a school subject. Paradoxically, UNESCO named geography among the five most important subjects of general education, along with history, philosophy, psychology, and foreign languages.
I would like to hope that thanks to the joint efforts of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Board of Trustees under the Russian Geographical Society, Russian geographical scientific schools, methodological scientists, and the teaching community, there will be positive changes in modern geography. It is necessary and expedient, in order to improve the status and prestige of geography, to normalize the teaching load in geography at school, to return geography as an entrance exam to the relevant specialties in universities, this will contribute to the demand for knowledge about the integral scientific picture of the modern world, the geographic envelope and its parts.
All this will help to optimize the organization of geography education with great attention to students, their abilities to perceive and assimilate geographic knowledge and skills.
When developing a new school geography, it is necessary to take into account: the school must prepare students for orientation not in verbal information, but in a real environment, in which theoretical knowledge about it is always presented in unity, the application of which is impossible without students mastering the system of appropriate methods of independent work. The academic subject "geography" is not only the content of the programs, but also the work of the students' thinking. This requires a new technology for organizing geographic education.
The geography of Russia has traditionally served the needs of the Russian state, which since at least the 14th century has been continuously “colonized”, expanding its territory. In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, some geographers even criticized the Russian Geographical Society for being carried away by the study of foreign territories (to the detriment of the study of Russia itself - primarily those that Russia could "have views", if not for the purpose of accession, then to increase their influence in them). Now, when the six-century era of Russia's expansion is over, the tasks of geography are also changing: we must all better know the inner, "deep" Russia, on which the main efforts of the state will be directed, and on which our future will ultimately depend.
“I love and know. I know and love. And the more I love it the better I know ”- these words were used by the geographer Yuri Konstantinovich Efremov as an epigraph to his wonderful book“ The Nature of My Country ”.
Any person should have in his head the correct idea of which country, which region, city, village he lives in. Without this, true patriotism is impossible - love for one's Fatherland.
In the period from 1924 to the beginning of the 30s. school education, including geography, was paralyzed by the leftist "comprehensive program", which did not provide for the study of individual subjects. Some geographic information, mainly of a statistical nature, was given in natural science and social science programs. Students were given the task of independently studying the map, working with reference books, drawing up graphs. In 1932, lessons began to be restored as the main form of classes. A significant breakthrough in school training in geography came in 1934. The government decree "On the Teaching of Geography in Primary and Secondary Schools of the USSR" approved geography as one of the most important disciplines of school training, established stable programs compulsory for all schools. Leading scientists, professors of Moscow State University, have prepared high quality textbooks, which have been republished with minor corrections for 20 years. The reaction to this decree was a dramatic expansion of the scale of higher education in geography, the organization of specialized faculties in universities and pedagogical institutes. The country needed educated teachers and specialists to study the productive forces and the rapidly developing economy. Textbooks A.S. Barkov and A.A. Polovinkin for the fifth grade, G.I. Ivanova - for the sixth, SV. Chefranova - for the seventh, N.N. Baransky - for the eighth, I.A. Witver - for the ninth grade, despite the ideological costs and the demarcation of physical and economic geography, were excellent for their time. The textbooks of Baransky and Vitver were awarded the State Prize. To help teachers, under the editorship of Baransky, the journal "Geography in School" began to be published. The role of the map in geographic education increased significantly. According to Baransky, there is no geography without a map. “The map,” said Baransky (1990, pp. 218, 219, 222), “is the" alpha and omega "(that is, the beginning and end) of geography. From the map all geographical research proceeds and comes to the map; from the map it begins and ends with the map ... The map is no less necessary as a tool for teaching geography than as a tool for geographical research. Providing the teaching of geography with the greatest possible number of maps adapted for the purpose of teaching is the most important and most effective means of improving the whole organization of educational affairs in the area of geography. " By 1940, a series of general geographic and special demonstration maps and educational geographic atlases had been created. Manuals on teaching methods began to be published: in 1938 - A.A. Polovinkin "Methodology of physical geography", in 1939 - a team of authors edited by V.G. Erdeli "Methods of Teaching Geography", "Essays on School Methods of Economic Geography" by N.N. Baransky, in a supplemented and revised form published in 1960 under the title "Methods of Teaching Economic Geography." Teaching geography was placed on a solid methodological basis, the structure of lessons, the principles of covering the geographical location, the order of the territorial characteristics of natural and economic complexes were legalized. For over half a century, with minor changes, the sequence of studying geography in separate classes with a strict division into parts has been preserved: first, physical, then economic geography. The course of school geography "Socio-economic geography of foreign countries" is coming to an end. In the 1950s-1960s. there was a period when the program for the study of geography ended with the geography of their country - "Economic Geography of the USSR". The logical innovation was canceled, and the geography of the Motherland is still a "passing" part of the school course.
The modernization of the school course was due to the strengthening of its scientific content with a simultaneous reduction of the most entertaining and attractive sections, in particular about travel and discoveries. At one time, Baransky (1957, p. 37) noted with bitterness that in school geography “the hours are reduced, curricula are cut, programs and textbooks are also reduced ... Historical and geographical essays were thrown out of the curriculum and textbooks of economic geography ... But how to understand the present of the country and the region without the past? " The process of "cutting back" affected not only the personalities associated with socio-economic geography. The silence about travel and discoveries for the natural component of geography is even more sensitive. In the textbooks of the 1980s. the names of P.P. were not mentioned. Semenov-Tyan-Shanskiy, V.V. Dokuchaeva, A.I. Voeikova, D.N. Anuchina, V.I. Vernadsky, N.I. Vavilova, L.S. Berg. V.A. Obruchev and A.E. Fersman are mentioned as travelers (Maksakovsky, 1984). The positive changes and shortcomings of scientific personnel in textbooks and programs on geography were written by V.P. Maksakovsky and in 1998. More than strange was the situation when the study of zonality was not accompanied by the mention of the names of A. Humboldt and VV Dokuchaev, landscapes - L.S. Berg, properties of the biosphere - V.I. Vernadsky, the geographical envelope - A.A. Grigoriev and SV. Kalesnik. A place in the curriculum and textbooks was freed up under the plausible pretext of increasing the share of theoretical knowledge while reducing factual material. And although attention was drawn to the need to eliminate the excessive complexity of the educational material and the overload of students, the increasing tilt of increasing the degree of scientific character of school geography continues to this day. “Students overextend their mental capabilities, the normal process of thinking is distorted, only individual words, fragments of content remain in their memory - and then for a while, by the end of the school year, they are forgotten ... The authors of programs and textbooks are so devoted to“ scientificness ”that they forget: difficulties for students with such approaches to teaching are inevitable - due to age and still limited horizons; children still lack life experience, spatial and temporal representations, abstract thinking, etc. are not yet developed. What the authors-geographers know well (scientific facts, connections, processes) overwhelms students. Students become helpless from hearing unfamiliar words without reflecting reality in their thinking. They suffer not so much from the abundance of material as from the fact that they are not prepared for its perception and awareness. They reject the content in which everything begins with science ... School geography gradually began to turn into a subject with increasingly complex content, obscure and therefore uninteresting for students. " Such an unforeseen effect of excessive "learning" of school geography is compelled to state the prominent methodologist T.P. Gerasimova (2000), and she is not alone in her findings. Among the unsuccessful ones should be attributed to the experiment of the Federal Center. L.V. Zankov, introducing the textbook by A.N. Kazakova “Geography for junior schoolchildren. Grade 2 ”(1996), which lists up to a hundred names and surnames, up to two hundred names of geographical objects. Such a textbook could be used by university students when mastering a course in the history of geography.
The discussion about changing the structure and content of school geography education has been going on for decades. Especially about the need to overcome the disunity of geography into physical and socio-economic parts, which undermines the position that "school geography is the only natural-social subject that considers the complex and diverse connections between natural and production systems in time and space" (Rozanov, 2001 ). If you do not take up the urgent building of bridges between the two branches of geography, said in one of his speeches A.G. Isachenko, then we are threatened with complete collapse. At the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences, at the Research Institute of the Content and Methods of Teaching of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, scientists and teachers proposed various options for a new structure of school geographic education, new disciplines that combine geographical knowledge into a coherent system that gives an idea of the unity of interdependent processes in nature, society and economic activity. The basic directions of integration in the educational sphere should be, in the opinion of many participants in the discussions, regional studies, regional studies and general geography. Geography as a world outlook discipline, which is fundamental for understanding the place of man in the biosphere and the formation of rational rules for environmental management in the broad sense of this concept, should find a place in the final grade of secondary school and not in the form of an elective for specialized groups of students, but as one of the most important courses. marking the first stage of ecological-geographical education of the entire population. For many people who make responsible decisions related to the development of productive forces and intervention in a complex system of natural processes, the basic knowledge remains those that were mastered in geography lessons in high school. This means that the level of this knowledge should be adequate to understanding the problems of the modern world.
One of the versions of the draft educational standard for geography education was published for discussion in 1997. The reactions varied, from enthusiasm to rejection. The project correctly defined the goals of geography education - "to promote the formation in the student's mind of a system of views, principles, norms of behavior in relation to the geographic environment that determine the formation of a person and a citizen", taking into account the fact that in the near future, issues of interaction humanity with its habitat. The drafters of the standard added the humanistic triad “environment-man-behavior” to the neutral triad “nature-population-economy”. It is the aggregate behavior of people that will determine the prosperity of mankind or the inevitable decline of civilization. Correctly set goals in< проекте, однако, были предложены не соответствующие целям принципы трансформации географического образования. В проекте, как было отмечено (Богучарсков, 1997), «постулируется ныне действующая схема распределения времени на обучение географии, при которой может быть узаконен сокращенный график уроков в 10-м классе и их полное отсутствие в 11-м. Но если географии нет в заключительном классе, то теряется ее общественная важность, какие бы по этому поводу ни провозглашались декларации!» Разгромную рецензию на проект образовательного стандарта дал B.C. Преображенский (1997): «В стандарте - концентрация внимания на "пользовании" природой. Вот и весь идеал "гармонически развитой личности!"» В качестве основных недостатков проекта стандарта Преображенский отметил: «Выдвижение категории пользования, рожденной в рамках потребительской идеологии индустриального общества, и отказ от познания и природы, и человека как самоценностей... Отсутствие попыток передать если не единство, то тесные взаимосвязи природной и общественной географии... географическая оболочка и ландшафты предстают как чисто "природные бесчеловечные" объекты». Многие положения оказались не более чем декларациями. В ходе конкретизации их «целостный многоцветный мир современной географии "Планеты людей" оказался разрушенным. Образовательная область предстала как некоторое неясно очерченное формально структурированное поле, засеянное разномасштабными, рядом положенными, не связанными между собой понятиями».
The pressure on geography was especially noticeable during the preparation of the justification for the transfer to 12-year schooling. The team of authors under the leadership of V.P. Dronov, a draft concept of geographic education in a 12-year school was prepared. As a basis, the concept adopted the state doctrine of dividing education into three stages: primary, basic (compulsory, including grades 5-10) and complete (grades 11 and 12, it must be understood, optional) secondary education. Based on this model, the authors of the concept formed the structure of geographical disciplines. And this project has not received universal recognition. The proclaimed goals - to investigate territorial natural-social systems in an indissoluble unity - were understood by the authors of the concept as a significant reduction in the natural part. V.P. Maksakovsky (2000). "The all-round" humanization "of school geography, which we have proclaimed, - noted the academician, - should not infringe upon the interests of geographers of natural history profile." We must assume that we are all working together to meet the interests of our contemporaries and descendants.
To implement the plans for the transfer of school education for a 12-year period of study, a competition was announced to create a draft Basic Curriculum. The coordinating council, created in the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, out of the entire package of the received variants of the plan, chose one as the preferred one, but the most unsuccessful from the standpoint of geography. The geography course, according to this project, is allocated time only in the 7th, 8th and 9th grades. “What is proposed by the draft Basic Curriculum,” wrote V.T. Bogucharskov (20006), - focused on the development of consumerism, on momentary pragmatism and does not pursue the goal of raising conscious concern for the environment, more precisely, about the conditions and resource base of living even for the coming decades. You cannot ignore the fateful part of knowledge in the school of the future. On the contrary, geography as a carrier of this knowledge should be improved and given an opportunity for its development. " Massive protests against such a basic plan had an effect. By order of the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation of 03/06/2001, an experimental Basic Curriculum was approved, in which geography, albeit in a truncated form, is presented in grades 6-10, in grades 11-12 - only in specialized groups of geographic, geological-geographical and economic specializations. It is unlikely that this structure of school geographical training corresponds to the ecological and geographical situation that is developing in the world and in the country. It must be admitted that the attitude towards the school course in geography is largely related to the position of geography itself, its authority in the community of other sciences.
The problems of high school geography are also inherent in geographical education in high school. First of all, this concerns the increasingly divergent branches of physical and socio-economic geography. One of the possible ways to consolidate natural and socio-economic knowledge for the purposes of education and research of natural-socio-economic systems can be found on the basis of a comprehensive regional geography (Mashbits, 1998, 1999). “Comprehensive regional studies,” according to Mashbits (1999, p. 4), “can help to increase the efficiency of nature management and economic management, create an efficient economy, and improve the living conditions and health of the population”. It has already been noted (Bogucharskov, 1998, 2000c) the desirability of organizing departments of regional studies, in which teachers and researchers of the natural and social wings of geography were represented on equal terms for complex regional scientific research, for the real implementation of integrated education programs, for training teachers of geography. The school does not need a separate teacher of physical geography and a teacher of socio-economic geography. In general, at school, geography should be common, undivided. The Department of Regional Studies should be based on the principles of unity and interdependence of natural-socio-economic (natural-socio-cultural) processes. It is important for geographers themselves to understand and to convince others that geography has a theoretical core - this is the theory of harmonizing the interaction of society and nature. This problem has always been in the field of view of geography, and only in the last quarter of the XX century. attracted the attention of scientists in other fields of knowledge. Due to the aggravation of environmental problems, geographers created courses, departments and faculties of geoecology. The dominant direction in them should be geographic. In reality, on the basis of geochemical studies, geoecology is increasingly becoming an object of love and touching concern of geologists.
