The rapid development of generative artifi cial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping the production, circulation, and learning of geographical knowledge, while also compelling geography education to re-anchor the purposes of learning and its educational value. Drawing on four relationships between learning and AI, this paper proposes the HEDGE geographical thinking framework. Rooted in geography and oriented towards education, the framework comprises five interrelated dimensions: human-centric thinking, epistemic thinking, deep thinking, generative thinking, and ethical thinking. HEDGE thinking calls on teachers to integrate knowing, doing, and being, and to support students of geography in becoming transformative agents with ethical awareness, creativity, empathy, and the agency to act. We argue that human beings are the heart of education: human beings are continually shaped through their choices and actions. Accordingly, geography teachers in the age of AI are not competing with AI; rather, they need to re-organise students’ relationships with AI in order to safeguard the educational value of geography education.

Cultivating geospatial thinking is a key focus in geography education. As an eff ective instructional aid, the teaching eff ectiveness of Desktop Virtual Reality (DVR) is moderated by individual diff erences among learners, such as cognitive style. Therefore, empirical research on whether DVR is effective in enhancing high school students' geospatial thinking, how it works, and for whom it is more eff ective can contribute to the implementation of individualized teaching and the advancement of educational informatization. This study employed independent samples t-tests and structural equation modeling analysis. Results indicate that compared to traditional image-based instruction, DVR teaching is significantly more effective in improving students' geospatial thinking; DVR primarily infl uences students' geospatial thinking and learning outcomes through the pathway of "instructional media-cognitive load-spatial presence-geospatial thinking-learning outcome"; diff erent cognitive styles exert a diff erential moderating eff ect only on the "spatial presence-geospatial thinking" pathway. Based on the fi ndings, this study proposes personalized recommendations for teaching practice.

This study uses problems on advection fog from the Shandong Province College Entrance Examination geography papers as a representative of complex contextual problems and employs the think-aloud protocol to conduct an empirical analysis of 104 high-achieving second-year high school students. The results reveal three core obstacles in students’ problemsolving process: difficulty in dynamic process modeling, disorganized causal reasoning, and vague representation of geographical elements. Analyzing these challenges through the lens of cognitive load theory, their origins are attributed to excessive extraneous cognitive load, insuffi cient management of intrinsic load, and lack of relevant schemas. Accordingly, this study proposes three progressive instructional intervention strategies, practice demonstrates that the strategies can eff ectively reduce students' problem-solving burden, enhance their comprehensive competence in tackling complex geographical problems, and provide a teaching pathway grounded in cognitive science for fostering geographical key competences.

Interdisciplinary thematic learning has emerged as a central focus in contemporary geography education research. This study constructed an analytical framework for evaluating interdisciplinary thematic teaching designs in secondary school geography from two dimensions: element classifi cation and quality evaluation. Through content analysis of 150 instructional designs published between 2023 and 2025, the study revealed four characteristic features in terms of elements: comprehensive goal-setting, emphasizing integrated knowledge application; diff erentiated distribution across stages of schooling, focusing on classroom and practical scenarios; diversifi ed interdisciplinary integration, prioritizing strongly correlated subject areas; and localized theme construction, grounded in regional resources and life-related situations. Regarding quality dimensions, the analysis iedentifi ed: clear learning objectives with preliminary value infi ltration; fi rm stance in geography with insuffi cient integration depth; mature context creation but need for stronger narrative coherence; close connection between problem and context yet requiring deeper internal thinking. Based on these fi ndings, the paper proposed optimization strategies from four aspects: value integration, interdisciplinary integration, context creation, and deepening of thinking.

Curriculum-based ideological and political education represents a key pathway for fulfilling the fundamental mission of moral education in higher education. Human geography, by virtue of its disciplinary characteristics, inherently carries educational functions that extend beyond knowledge transmission. Drawing on these features, this study took a whole-process perspective on talent cultivation in human geography programs and systematically examines the collaborative mechanisms and reform pathways for integrating ideological education within a curriculum cluster under a patriotismoriented framework. Specifically, the study deconstructed the logic of integrating ideological education with disciplinary knowledge, with a particular focus on identifying elements of patriotism embedded in core topics such as human–environment relationships and regional development. Furthermore, by analyzing selected teaching units within the curriculum cluster, it presents representative instructional cases that illustrate how ideological education can be eff ectively incorporated into human geography teaching. The findings provide practical references for advancing curriculum-based ideological education and fostering patriotism in similar programs across other institutions, as well as in related disciplines within geography.

At present, there are some problems in junior high school geography teaching, such as the lack of interactive experience, the lack of dynamic presentation of principles, and the diffi culty of exploration practice. In order to better break through the above diffi culties, this paper explores the development and application of interactive tools for junior high school geography teaching based on AI programming software Trae. This paper defi nes and classifi es the interactive tools for junior high school geography teaching, sorts out the complete process of tool development, and carries out teaching application practice from the aspects of knowledge and skills consolidation, process principle analysis, situational simulation and exploration. The results show that Trae can effectively reduce the technical threshold and meet the needs of personalized customization; The interactive tools developed by it can solve the current teaching pain points, realize the consolidation of knowledge and skills under the participation of multiple senses, the cracking of abstract principles under the visual fi eld, and the cultivation of Geographical Practice Ability under the virtual simulation experiment, so as to promote the transformation of geography classroom from "knowledge inculcation" to "quality cultivation", and lay the foundation for the cultivation of students' core quality of geography course.

Geographical resources in the surrounding environment serve as a "living textbook" for senior high school geography teaching, and their effective development and application are conducive to cultivating key competences. Based on the requirements of The 2017 Version of National Geography Curriculum Standards and combined with the knowledge points in the Hunan Education Publishing House Edition senior high school geography textbooks, this paper proposes a four-step activation method: perception–connection–integration–application. Taking the project-based learning of Yanglin Old Street in Hengdong County as a case study, it expounds how to transform scattered resources on campus, in communities and in their hometowns into systematic teaching carriers. Through building sensitivity to geographical resources, anchoring textbook knowledge points, constructing practical units and translating value extension into practice, the in-depth cultivation of geographical key competences is achieved. Practice shows that this method can solve problems such as disconnection between textbooks and daily life and underutilization of local resources, providing a replicable paradigm for senior high school geography teaching.

Focusing on the contradiction between the statement that "valley wind speed is higher than mountain wind speed" in high school geography textbooks, and the content of geography academic profi ciency tests as well as actual observation data, this paper conducts relevant research. Through multi-scenario analysis based on AI models, field observation and literature data, it discusses the complex infl uencing mechanism of the wind speed diff erence between mountain and valley winds, and proposes that the characteristics of mountain-valley breeze should be comprehensively judged in combination with specifi c geographical environments.

This study focuses on fostering model-construction thinking in geography teaching. By analyzing the core elements 
of model-construction thinking, this paper develops a three-dimensional structural model for junior high school geography and illustrates the thinking processes at each stage of model construction with diagrams. Taking the teaching of “Earth’s Rotation” as an example, the study proposes a series of targeted strategies and approaches for cultivating model-construction thinking.

To enhance middle school students' ability to solve complex real-world problems through interdisciplinary approaches and promote the joint development of teachers and students, this study explores the evaluation methods for interdisciplinary thematic learning in middle school geography courses under the guidance of constructivist learning theory and the fourth-generation evaluation theory. The evaluation is conducted in two contexts: "classroom activities derived from geography textbooks" and "practical activities utilizing school-based resources." Following the principles of development, comprehensiveness, and diversity, the evaluation content covers dimensions such as basic knowledge, key abilities, essential qualities, and value orientations. An evaluation scale based on "knowledge construction and psychological construction" is used to assess junior high school students' performance in geography interdisciplinary thematic learning. For senior high school students, hierarchical levels of geography interdisciplinary thematic learning are defined as pre-set learning goals to guide their self-directed learning and participation in evaluation. Additionally, a self-evaluation scale for teachers' implementation of interdisciplinary thematic learning is developed, providing a reference for teachers to adjust their behaviors and better guide learning activities.

Against the backdrop of the Curriculum Standards for General Senior Secondary School Geography: Daily Revision Edition (2017 Edition, Revised in 2025), which emphasises the cultivation of core competencies and context-based problemsolving teaching, this paper integrates real-world 3D technology into thematic geography teaching. It creates an immersive and interactive learning environment for students, guiding them to pose, analyse and solve problems within the comprehensive context of ‘unveiling the true face of Mount Lu’, summarise patterns, and achieve a comprehensive integration of knowledge and a gradual deepening of thinking. The organic integration of real-world 3D technology with thematic geography teaching can eff ectively overcome the limitations of traditional two-dimensional images in terms of spatial intuitiveness and holistic understanding. It supports students in solving complex geographical problems through independent inquiry within a three-dimensional spatial environment, providing an innovative digital transformation paradigm for cultivating students’ geographical core competencies.