The evaluation of an experiment in physical geography teaching

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Abstract
An attempt is made to evaluate the impact of an educational experiment by means of the Lancaster ‘Approaches to Studying’ and ‘Course Perceptions’ questionnaires. The experiment involved adopting General Systems Theory as a vehicle for the introduction of physical geography. It was hoped that this would help students think about the environment in more holistic terms. By means of questionnaire analysis, it was discovered that restructuring conventional physical geography teaching around General Systems Theory encouraged committed, achievement oriented students to study more deeply and to seek harder for meaning in what they studied. However, the stress created by the necessity of coming to grips with an unfamiliar approach severely disadvantaged students with a non‐academic orientation and those with inefficient studying habits.