A Survey On The Present Situation Of Junior Middle School Students 'Geographical Classes' Situational Interests And The Countermeasures

Interest is becoming an increasingly important factor in pedagogy, once learning interest was formed, it will guides students to consciously maintain his learning behavior towards stated goals. Geography Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education has paid much attention to students’ needs and interest in geography learning. Geography begins in middle school, and it is of great value to cultivate students’ interest in this period. It is widely believed that interest include individual interest and situational interest. Relatively to individual interest, situational interest is easier to be exploited in pedagogy. Therefore, a research on present situation and promoting strategies of middle school students’situational interest in geography classroom is of theoretical and practical value.In the study, we made a survey on 420 students in junior high school on the basis of Geography Curriculum Reform and theories such as cognitive learning theory and sorting and analyzing relevant research on situational interest both at home and abroad. Then differences of overall situational interest between different groups in geography classroom were explored and reasons were analyzed, and counterparts were proposed based on the reality of the school conditions and the characteristics of the students.The results show that, middle school students’ overall situational interest are moderate, most students have recognized the value of geography. There is a relatively high difference in the situational interest of students who have got different academic record:students in experimental classes scored higher compared with others in ordinary classes. There exists certain difference in the situational interest of students between different grades, students in grade 7 scored higher than those in grade 8 in the aspects of motivated situational interest and value situational interest. There is no significant differences between boys and girls in situational interest, but they do like different things. More than half of the girls find local conditions and customs, geographical anecdotes and exotic animals interesting, among which, girls find geographical anecdotes and exotic animals most interesting. While more than half of the boys find geographical anecdotes, local conditions and customs, tourism resources, exotic animals and military geography interesting, among which, the boys find exotic animals and military geography most interesting. The interaction of academic records, grades and sexes is significant, boys and girls have different developing processes as their grade goes higher.Based on the analysis of the investigation on middle school students’ situational interest in geography classroom, suggestions of increasing students’ situational interest was put forward. Firstly, teachers should create situations for geography classroom based on the differences of situational interest between different groups, and try their best to fully motivate students’ situational interest at the beginning of the class. Secondly, teachers should skillfully use the situation created before in the process of teaching according to the characteristics of geography curriculum content and different groups of students, and gradually help them maintain their situational interest which has already been stimulated before. Thirdly, teachers should guide students to summarize the classroom according to their studies timely, deepen students’ understanding of the teaching contents, timely sublime their situational interest into individual interest conversion.