Contemporary Chinese Concepts of Fieldwork in Geographical Education

Abstract

Fieldwork is largely absent from the mainstream geography curriculum in most Chinese secondary schools as a result of the time demands of the curriculum and the inexperience in fieldwork of most teachers. Some developments have occurred in the 'second class' or 'activity class' which provides opportunities for undertaking much more practical aspects of geography. This paper examines the nature of the 'second class' in the Chinese geography curriculum and presents examples of the approaches and investigations that are being promoted. Despite this development, though,it seems unlikely that fieldwork will assume a key position in geography in China.