Becoming a part of the destination: a model for teaching tourism landscape

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to explore the role of the experiential learning method in teaching tourism landscape. A model has been developed to teach tourism landscape through analysis on the basis of Kolb’s experiential learning theory. The sample group consists of sixty-five high school students aged 14–18 years. The proposed model was designed in three parts using a mixed research design; fieldwork, qualitative analysis, and thematic mapping as the components of experiential learning. The results show that the experiential learning method is effective in teaching tourism landscape. Students understood the concept of the landscape. It has been proven that the teaching model developed to interpret the landscape and its three-dimensional components on maps are suitable. This study is important as it suggests a new approach that can be used in tourism education.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism landscape
• tourism geography
• fieldwork
• experiential learning
• tourism geography education
• tourism education

Acknowledgment

We also would like to thank Eti Social Sciences High School students, teachers and administrators, Sivrihisar Municipality and Sivrihisar District National Education Directorate administrators and employees, Nurbiye Gülerce VT, SEV Muzaffer Demir, Kenan Yalçın Anatolian High Schools, and Fahri Keskin Science High School students, teachers, managers, and employees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Anadolu Üniversitesi [2107E138].