The world’s major regions as part of regional geography courses?

Abstract

The chapter focuses on the division of the world into major geographical regions and related matters. At the beginning, geographical paradigms and globalisation are discussed. Various concepts suggested by geographers, economists, linguists, ethnologists and experts in political studies are outlined. Different approaches towards major geographical regions are discussed and evaluated; many are shown in maps. The last section analyses "mental maps". These show how students from three different countries perceive the possible division of the planet into major geographical regions. The results are compared with commonly used regions of the world. Many secondary school students and even university students are unable to cope with this task. The students did not succeed in filling in the questionnaire properly or did not do so completely. Some 40 % of Czech students returned it in such a state that any kind of evaluation was impossible. This is quite surprising, especially when one takes into account that major world regions must have been presented in some way in geography courses at secondary schools and also at universities.