COMMUNICATING GEOGRAPHIES - DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF A COMMUNICATION INSTRUCTION MANUAL IN THE GEOGRAPHY DISCIPLINE OF AN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY

This paper reports on the development, application and review of a wri tten teaching and assessment manual intended to promote the developmen t of communication skills amongst geography students at The Flinders U niversity of South Australia. The manual provides advice to students o n presenting talks, writing essays and research reports, preparing pos ters, and communicating graphically. Also included in the manual are c arefully developed assessment schedules associated with these forms of communication. These schedules had been intended to form the basis of a system of criterion-referenced assessment, but practical and pedago gic problems prevented this. Nevertheless, the package-in the form of a communication instruction manual-has been implemented across the dis cipline at Flinders University during 1994. Preliminary reviews sugges t that the manual is popular and useful especially amongst particular strident groups. There is also scope for further application and exten sion of the document.