Geography Instruction in Dutch Secondary Schools: A Personal Experience

Abstract

The author was recently a Fulbright Exchange Teacher at a secondary school in the Netherlands. An assignment teaching geography provided a first-hand look at geographic education in the Netherlands. This article presents an overview of the Dutch secondary school system and summarizes various aspects of the geography program. It examines the required and elective geography courses, staffing in geography, textbooks, and methodology. The results show that geography has a high status in Dutch secondary schools, that Dutch textbooks tend to apply major geographic themes to a specific regional setting, and that active learning techniques are regularly used in the classroom. Some implications for geography instruction in the United States are noted.

Key Words:

• geographic education
• the Netherlands
• secondary education
• Fulbright