THINKING SPACE GEOGRAPHICALLY

Teaching Geography becomes different matter with the use of current technologies (like Geographical Informational Systems - GIS) and with the application of effective methods and innovations. Our article presents a proposal how to innovate and adjust a rigid national educational system (Czech, in this case) to the current both theoretical and applied frame of Geography as discipline. The theoretic part deals with the notion of the space and the ‟spatial thinking”, then the methodology of our teaching and the aims of the courses are discussed. We test and evaluate our approach via two courses: Sustainability and Urban and rural studies, both with the strong emphasis on students´ perception and imagination. This paper draws the development and results of the Sustainability courses which dealt with the specific territory of Lower (2014) and Upper Svitava Basin (2015). This region was affected by various historical shifts (de/reterritorializations) like the displacement of Sudeten Germans and consequent introducing of new settlement. The cultural landscape was re-written and we can label the identity of this region as difficult or even broken. Our approach was based on the enactive as the interactions between mind, body and the environment, seeing them all as inseparably intertwined in mental/cognitive processes. This concept we strive to apply in our geographical education, thus this paper discusses our didactic methods and shows selected outputs of our students which can ‟think the space geographically”.