| In the context of the new round of basic education curriculum reform,the Ministry of Education has clarified the four core qualities of geography,and proposed to make the work of cultivating students’ disciplinary core qualities the primary goal to be achieved in geography,so as to lay a solid foundation for the implementation of the task of nurturing the successors of socialism.Among these is regional cognition,a fundamental idea and approach developed under the influence of the concept of human-earth harmony,in which the geographical environment and its relationship with human activities are understood from a regional perspective.The improvement of regional awareness can effectively lead to the development of other core literacies.Geographical images are not only an important part of geography textbooks and an economical and effective teaching aid for use in teaching and learning,they can also be used for teaching.The use of geographical imagery in the senior secondary geography classroom helps to change students’ previous learning patterns of mechanical imitation and passive acceptance.The characteristics of geographical imagery are highly compatible with the need to develop regional cognitive literacy,not only to improve the quality of teaching and learning but also to accelerate the formation of core literacies in students.Therefore,studying how to teach geography images to cultivate regional cognitive literacy and digging deeper into how to use geography images as a tool for regional cognitive cultivation has become an important breakthrough in improving the quality and efficiency of geography teaching,promoting the cultivation of regional cognitive literacy and optimising and enriching geography image teaching strategies.Regional cognitive literacy has attracted widespread attention from geography scholars since it was proposed,but there is still some room for research on the integration of geography image teaching with regional cognitive literacy.Educators are aware of how well the two fit together,but in the practical implementation process,multiple factors come into play,resulting in the combination not being as effective as expected.The question of what went wrong in combining the two,where it happened,why it happened,how it was solved and whether the proposed solution strategies can be applied in practice are the cornerstones of this study.This study used literature analysis,questionnaires,interviews and data analysis to explore the current situation of the application of geographic image teaching in regional cognitive development,and to identify problems from the current situation,propose practical corresponding strategies to solve the real-life problems,and finally apply the strategies to design a typical teaching programme.Firstly,from the perspective of combining theory and practice,the literature and data on geographical images,regional cognition and the application of geographical image teaching in regional cognition at home and abroad are sorted out and analysed by means of documentary analysis to determine the purpose and content of this study.The questionnaire method was then used to analyse the current situation of students using geographical images to develop their regional cognitive literacy.416 questionnaires were distributed to students in High Schools A and B in Kaifeng city and High School C in Xinyang city.In order to grasp the shortcomings of teachers in using geographical images to develop students’ literacy and to obtain the experiences and suggestions of front-line teachers,interviews were conducted with 10 front-line teachers using the interview method to obtain the current teaching status of teachers using geographical images to develop students’ regional cognitive literacy.With the help of questionnaires and interviews,the current situation of teachers and students in using geography images to develop regional cognitive literacy was identified,and then analysed to conclude that the following shortcomings exist:(1)Some students have little awareness of the use of diagrams and have not developed the habit of using them;(2)Students’ image skills need to be improved;(3)Some students have weak basic knowledge and weak ability to extract regional information;(4)Lack of innovative research in some teachers’ understanding of regional cognitive literacy;(5)Teachers’ teaching design is difficult to implement in practice.Based on the above research,a diagnostic analysis of the current situation is conducted,and with the help of a theoretical foundation framework,strategies for the application of geography image teaching in the cultivation of regional cognition are proposed:(1)Cultivating awareness of map use and guiding students to form regional spatial concepts;(2)Improve map-using skills to help students extract regional information;(3)Rationalise teaching arrangements to help students escape from the dilemma of lack of basic knowledge;(4)Conduct research activities to innovate regional cognitive understanding;(5)Summarise teaching reflections and improve teaching design.The innovation of this study is that there is some scope for geography educators to study the integration of geographic imagery and regional cognition in a relatively small number of studies.When teaching with the help of geographical images,scholars have paid less attention to the importance of students and teachers in developing regional cognitive literacy.This paper closely links teachers and students to promote geographical imagery in the high school geography classroom to develop students’ regional cognitive skills,help students dissolve geographical learning barriers,help teachers improve the quality of classroom teaching and their own professional development,and enrich teaching strategies for frontline teachers to draw on. |
