Research On The Application Of Project-based Learning In Geography Teaching In Middle Schools

With the development of social economy and the deepening of teaching reforms in China,the traditional geography teaching mode became insufficient to fully meet the educational requirements of this new era.Compared with the traditional mode,the teaching fields of project-based learning mode are no longer limited to classrooms and schools,and gradually extends to fields outside of school and in our daily lives instead.Evaluation methods are more diversified,and more performance evaluation is counted in on the basis of the results of written tests.Project-base learning advocates a reduction of teachers’ instruction time,and gives students more time on self-learning and cooperative explorations.It highlights the dominant position of students in teaching and learning.Project-based learning mode reconstructs the core knowledge through the learning practices in complex situations,which is beneficial to the students for their cultivation of learning abilities,that is,to help the students become independent thinkers and learners,proficient communicators and high-level problem solvers.At present,the application of project-based learning in geography teaching in middle schools is still at the stage of exploration,and there is a great space for development.Based on this,this research intends to explore the application of project-based learning in geography teaching in middle schools to improve the classroom patterns of geography teaching in middle schools in the studied region practically,so as to cultivate the learning abilities of students in geography.Based on the theories of constructivism,deep learning,pragmatism and multi-intelligence,this paper adopts various research methods such as literature research,questionnaire survey case studies,experience summaries and educational experiments to conduct the application research of project-based learning in geography teaching in middle schools.Firstly,it expounds the research background,status and ideas of project-based learning of geography in middle schools.Secondly,the connotation,characteristics and process of project-based learning are defined and analyzed.The implementation of project-based learning includes six steps: the selection and introduction of project theme,the formulation and division of tasks,the exploration and implementation of project process,the production and revision of project works,the display and exchange of project achievements,and the overall evaluation and reflection of the project.Thirdly,through interviews and questionnaire surveys,we have mastered the current situation of traditional middle geography teaching and the implementation of project-based learning in Jianyang County.It is found that project-based learning,as a student-centered teaching mode,is not fully applied in the present geography teaching in middle schools.Most teachers and students know little about project-based learning,but they are willing to try and much interested.There are many difficulties in implementing project-based learning,and teachers are in urgent need of professional guidance.This paper extracted five factors affecting project-based learning,namely,external pressure,support from school,teachers’ professional qualities,students’ knowledge level and teaching hours.Fourthly,by analyzing the implementation status and related literature,the design strategy for middle schools’ project-based learning of geography is proposed.This paper proposed a project-based learning design path based on UbD reverse design idea,that is,defining the expected learning result,determining the reasonable evaluation evidence,planning the corresponding teaching process,and ensuring the consistency of the learning objective,evaluation evidence and teaching design of the whole project.Fifth,combined with the basic connotation of project-based learning,the standard of geography curriculum and the reality of geography teaching,this paper takes the project of "Four Seasons Flowery Campus" as an example to show the design and implementation process of project-based learning of middle school geography in detail.Through comparison experiment,we analyzed the application effect of project-based learning mode in middle school geography teaching.It is found that geography project-based learning has obvious effect on improving students’ key abilities and core qualities of geography learning.Finally,this paper summarizes the conclusion of the application of project-based learning in geography teaching in middle schools.The application of project-based learning in geography of middle schools has a wide space for development;the popularization and application of project-based learning need unified guidance;and project-based learning can improve the teaching effect of geography in middle schools.The innovative point of this research lies in model innovation and tool innovation.This research integrates the six steps of project-based learning into the three-stage reverse teaching design of UbD model,and constructs a project-based learning model based on UbD reverse design.This study has developed a geography project-based learning manual which is suitable for students through many teaching practices.It provides a convenient tool for middle school geography project-based learning practice.