Department of Geography


History

When the predecessor ”National Taiwan Normal College” was founded in June 5, 1946, we were established as Department of History and Geography. In 1962, Department of History and Geography expanded into Department of History and Department of Geography. On first of July in 1967, “National Taiwan Normal College” officially transformed into “National Taiwan Normal University”, and Department of Geography still belonged to College of Literature. Our department set up graduate division in August of 1970, and doctoral division in August of 1988. In 1994, ”Regional Research Center” was formed. Under Department of Geography, we have undergraduate division, graduate division, and doctoral division. The complete structure enables us to make good use of the facility and faculty in our department.

The original goal of our department was the training of high school teachers of geography. In recent years, due to the reformation of education and the demand for social development, we have to work on teachers training, academic research and community services altogether. Therefore, we subdivide our specialties into 5 divisions: ”Physiography”, “Anthropogeography”, “Regional Geography”, “Education of Geography”, and “Methods and Application of Geography”. All of them corporate and develop together.

To meet the government policies of education for all levels, we also set up many advanced study sessions, such as ”40 credits session”, “advanced study session for M.A. of education”, ”second skill training session”, and other types of non-scheduled short-term sessions, offering high school teachers the opportunities to study further, which contribute enormously to education of geography in high school.

Faculty and Students

There are 26 full-time teachers in our department（25 PhDs from universities in Taiwan and overseas）, including 8 professors, 12 associate professors, 6 assistant professors, 3 adjunct professors, 2 iadjunct nstructors, 4 administrative assistants. All teachers and assistants have acquired specialty, and are bests of the time. There are 330 undergraduate students, 41 graduate students, 27 doctoral students, and all of them are outstanding.

Colleagues not only work hard on education and research, but also regularly take part and present their research papers in academic forums in and out of the country, such as the international and regional forums held by International Geography Union（IGU）every four years, cross-Strait geography academic forum, and various activities of Chinese Geography Institute.

During summer and winter vacation, teachers may lead students to do inspection in or out of the country. So far we have been to Southeast Asia, Japan, America, Europe and Mainland China. We not only inspect local geographic features, but also visit and interact with the main universities and research institutes in local areas, which contribute greatly to further understanding of geography academic communities of both side, and forward diplomatic relations.

  • Professor
    • Kuo-Chuan Chen
    • Chao-Yang Pan
    • Yat-Man Yau
    • Shew-Jiuan Blanka Su
    • Su-Hsin Lee
    • Nae-Wen Kuo
    • Chung-ling Ouyang
    • Hsueh-Mei Lin
    • Shyue-Cherng Liaw
    • Shen-Chin Lin
  • Associate Professor
    • Hsueh-Cheng Chou
    • Kuo-Chen Chang
    • Su-Min Shen
    • Jinn-Shii Wu
    • Che-Ming Chen
    • Ming-Huey Wang
    • Yen-Tsao Wei
    • Chang Chun Chia
    • Hung-Jen Tan
    • Cheng-Chong Wu
    • Shu-Ping Weng
    • Chih-Wen Hung
    • Wei-Cheng Wang
  • Assistant Professor
    • Jia-En Sheu
    • Tsung-Yi Lin
    • Sendo Wang

Books and Facility

Our department has 12756 geographic treatises, 368 types of Chinese periodicals, 300 kinds of foreign language periodicals, 24908 scale topographical charts, 241 wall charts, 337 atlases of China and foreign countries, and 3212 aerial photographs. For the research and education of local geography, ”Regional Research Center” has collected numbers of related geographic researches and information, including natural environments and resources, geographic names, maps, all kinds of local records、treatises, public and private documents from Taiwan, Mainland China, neighboring countries, and all around the world, utilizing Geographic Information System(GIS) to categorize, file, and research all the information in order to replenish and build up the foundation of regional geographic research. Our large-scale labs and classrooms including topography lab, climatology lab, hydrology lab, cartography lab, geographic research lab, geographic information lab have significant meaning in teaching and research. Here are the brief descriptions of each lab：

  1. Topography Lab：sediment diameter analysis, petrologic physics quality analysis equipment, outfall environmental survey system, satellite position system like Trimble XR receiver, GeoExplore II system, surveying instruments, aerial photography information and GIS.
  2. Climatology Lab：meteorological observation instruments for teaching, meteorological telemetry system, radio weather map faxing system, clouds chart receiving system of Japan-Taiwan synchronous weather satellite, and plenty of relative books and treatises.
  3. Hydrology Lab：the instruments in our hydrology lab are mainly for water quality and quantity analysis：conductivity gauge for field work, underground water level meter, pH meter, simple flow velocity instrument, dissolved oxygen meter, turbidity meter. Indoor water quality analysis instruments include: visible light--UV spectrophotometer, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, other water quality analysis accessories including constant thermostat and moisture incubator, drying apparatus, microbalance, burette, magnetite mixer.
  4. Cartography Lab：the main purpose is drawing maps; a AO printer and 6 computerized charting workbenches.
  5. Geographic Information Lab：geographic information workbench installed with geographic information software ARC/INFO, MAPINFO, and GEOMEDIA; internet GIS server with MAPGUIDE; a A0 scanner.
  6. Geography Department Lab：25 personal computers, installed with OFFICES, FRONTPAGE, ARCVIEW、MAPINFO geographic information software and PCI telemetry software, COREL DRAW, PHOTOSHOP drawing software for relative courses teaching.
  7. Multi Media Telemetry Lab：PCI, ERMAPPER telemetry software, ORTHOENGINE software, proceeding researches of telemetry and aerial survey.


Concept of Development

The major mission of geography is to investigate the living space of human being. By establishing and verifying the theories, we are then be able to explain how space is disposed for all kinds of human activities, their reciprocal effects and regional characters, so as to improve the development of social constructions and people’s love for this land. Thus, besides doing geographic research, we also train teachers of high school or above. To make students possess the ability to do research and teaching independently, the design of courses is rather important. We emphasize the learning of basic subjects of freshman and sophomore, the testifying and applying theories of junior, the training of the abilities to teach and research of senior. We not only focus on giving lectures, but also field trips to the wild. Graduate and doctoral divisions stress on monographic research and essay writing as well as the study of all kinds of geographic theories and research methods. This is why the masters and doctors graduated from our department can carry out so many impressive researches and monographs.

Recently, many geographers repeatedly highlight that all geographic fields should be merged since geographic environment changes as a unity, and only by doing so can we solve environmental problems effectively. We have teachers of all fields, and wish to work together with colleagues of different fields in aspects of ”environment changing”, “resources reservation”, “design of construction in urban and rural areas” and “disaster prevention” in near future to show that geography can be of use in every dimension.

As for Anthropogeography, our directions of development are as following：population and cultural geography emphasize on aboriginals, adaptation to immigrants after internationalization, the effects of the awakening of humanism on behavior and country. Economic and social geography focus on globalization, agriculture and fishery, construction of community, the WTO impact on Taiwan and Mainland China, and cross-Strait relation. Communication and community geography emphasize on the design of construction and continuing development in urban and rural areas, and education. There are also researches of historical geography, geography of religions, geographic thought and philosophical foundation. We hope to improve cross-division cooperation and combine other technologies in our researches.

For a long term, in Taiwan’s geographic education, regional geography has been playing the most important role to cultivate students’ patriotism and international point of view. It has also been used to testify all kinds of geographic theories and environmental principles. In the course structure, in addition to the lectures of regional geography related to high school curriculum（geography of Taiwan, Mainland China, Asia and the world）, there are courses of regional geographic research methods. Because regional geographic research focuses on collecting inspection information of fields and landscapes, therefore, Taiwan is for now our major research area. However, after cross-Strait academic interaction was opened up, China has become our new research territory. Since the dissolution of martial law, facing the wave of academic localization, regional geography of Taiwan has grown into a very popular subject.

Geographic research methods and techniques contain subjects including geographic thought, cartography, telemetry, and geographic statistics. These topics are not merely the basic tools of geography, and have become common implements of relevant subjects like environment, construction, communications, and civil construction project. Thus, these courses stress on developing basic theories as well as on research and application.

Education of geography has an ideal of making students understand the disposition of space, relationship between human and environment, and regional characters, furthering their abilities to solve geographic problems, and improving scientific capacity. In the future, education of geography should not focus on dealing with exams but cultivating people the mind to get along with nature and people of different races. We would combine education of geography and life, take researches about course design, teaching methods, and teaching evaluation in past decade as the foundation to keep developing the courses and application of geography in high school, and find out effective methods of teaching and evaluation of geographic materials.

Teaching and Teacher Training

We bring all kinds of developed geographic techniques and points of view into teaching materials, which has made graduated students capable of using newest technology to teach geography in high schools, and we actively train teachers at work, too.

Research and Publication

Our experienced faculty has plentiful research experiences and treatises. In addition to publishing papers on academic periodicals and treatises, our faculty receive grants and commissions extensively from National Science Council, Ministry of Education, Taiwan Power Company, Water Resources Agency, Central Personnel Administration, and Taiwan History Council to proceed researches.

To encourage researches and advance the level, we edit all kinds of periodicals and series every year. Up to now, we have published 16 issues of “Geographic Research”, 35 issues of “Geographic Research Papers”, 30 issues of “Geographic Research Series”, 57 issues of “Geography Mate”, 28 issues of “Education of Geography”, and 9 series of “Education of Geography “. Besides, we have frequent interaction with internal and international academic communities.

Service

To urge geographic academic researches in Taiwan, and improve people’s love and recognition for their lands, we held ”Taiwan Geography Forum” since 1997. Its main purpose is to explain and manifest the regional structure and united quality of nature and culture in Taiwan through geographic points of view of space structure, ecological environment, and regional unit. We hope to appeal to relevant academic communities to concern about cultures and ecological environment in Taiwan by way of holding this forum. This forum has been supported by numbers of high school teachers and institutes, over 400 attendants in average.

To meet the government policies of education for all levels, we also set up many advanced study sessions, such as ”40 credits session”, “advanced study session for M.A. of education”, ”second skill training session”, and other types of non-scheduled short-term sessions like “GIS session”, offering high school teachers the opportunities to study further, which contribute enormously to education of geography in high school. Moreover, our faculty has performed a valuable service in course design, examination affair planning, and textbook editing.

United Regional Research Center

In view of the tendency of globalization, global village, and cultivating citizens to have world views, we set up ”Regional Research Center” in mid 90’s to unite researches from each division of our department, and to use ”Research of Mainland China”, ”Research of Taiwan”, ”Research of Southeast Asia”, ”Research of Europe”, “Research of America”, and “Research of The Third World” to unite colleagues, graduate and undergraduate students, which contribute a lot to our united and characteristic regional geographic research. We hope to cross the line of departments and schools and to combine with other academic research fields to proceed researches centered on regions.

Our research center hosts the ”Regional Probe Forum” regularly to discuss topics related to regional geography, inviting experts and scholars to have discussions and speeches. The topic of first forum is ：geography, history and culture>. We will print every statement and content of discussion in periodicals, and upload to our wed pages for your convenience.

Expectation

Taking physiography division for example, it covers an extensive range of subjects including topography, climatology, hydrology, pedology, biology and environmental science. Environmental geography is a priority of development in many countries now, therefore, we are considering strengthening teachers in this field. Additionally we hope to establish a system and hire technical personnel to assist relevant teaching and research.

For the time being, physiography division has 3 labs（topography, climatology and hydrology labs）. After years of reinforcing, the scales are fairly complete. Nevertheless, because we still subordinate to college of literature, our space and budget are limited. We should endeavor to acquire pedology, biology, and environmental protection labs as college of science has.

Our faculty is insufficient in fields of hydrology, pedology, and biological geography. In the passage of transformation of our school and department, we surely need to have more practical courses to help students to get jobs in the future. But due to the limitation of our faculty, students’ literary background, and the difficulty of hiring adjunct instructors, we are afraid that this goal may not be achieved in a short time. What we can do right now is to encourage teachers to strive for projects and publish their essays in order to make up for the deficiency.

Inside the school, we will increase cooperation with other departments and support related department with applied geographic statistic, teaching and research of geographic information and telemetry. Outside the school, we will improve internships and application of geographic information. Through the commissioned projects from government, we can make academic research practical and geography completely function with information management, and train students to have another skill in addition to teaching.

Our points of the future development on teaching, research, and service are as following:
Exchanging geographic researches with universities overseas: all our faculty has studied abroad (USA, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Austria), and still keep closely in touch with their schools. We not only frequently participate in international activities, but also have agreements with many universities. A series of cross-school cooperation can be expected.

Training teachers of geography in high education: Offering high school teachers of geography the opportunity to acquire M.A. and PhD degree, and to build up their capability of teaching and research, hoping to promote education of geography in all areas.

Basic and applied research: To go with the trend in lower education, expanding geographic information become an essential implement to unite teaching system. At the same time, we need to develop localized geographic information and telemetry system to take the place of expensive imported system, including geographic information system and telemetric multi media educational disc, and popularizing geographic information and telemetry system. We will introduce and develop new technology to apply on environmental inspection in our country, and to analyze and organize all sorts of data of natural and cultural environment in Taiwan to complete the construction of local database.

Improving the academic level of publishing periodicals of our department：”Geographic Research Report” is our most historical periodical, and has become one of the most famous international periodicals during 26 years. We also exchange many relevant periodicals with other countries. Every year we proceed dozens of projects, and receive more than 10 million grant, which helps greatly to our research.

Course Description

The course structure can be categorized into 5 divisions.

  1. Physical Geography Division
    The basic courses of this division are germorphology, climatology, hydrology, pedogeography, and biogeography；geography of oceans and rivers, special and applied geography and regional topography of Taiwan, China, and the world；cultural, regional, historical, applied climatology and regional climates of Taiwan, China, and the world；applied hydrology；regional biogeography of Taiwan, China, and the world; related courses include geology, meteorology, oceanography, and astronomy for further discussion. We can see the whole picture of the natural environment that we see and felon earth from learning these basic courses, which are also the common senses we have to know to adapt and control the environment.
  2. Human Geography Division
    The basic courses of this division are economic geography, social geography, political geography, cultural geography, and community geography. Anthropogeography is a section of social science, using the three points of view including space, people, and region to explain human activities and its results on earth. Human activities on earth are an entire exhibition of politic, economic, and society. This combined structure showed in the exhibition is culture, which cultivates mainly in the center of space human activities occur-community.
  3. Regional Geography Division
    This division researches all around the world. The main purpose is to make students understand the regional features and their differences of local and other areas in the world. Basic courses cover geography of Taiwan, geography of Mainland China, geography of pacific Asia, world geography, and regional geography. Studying the above courses will help understand the present conditions and characters of different regions, and become familiar with theories and methods of interpreting them. In addition, selecting courses such as geography of Asia, geography of Europe, geography of America, geography of Africa, and regional geography of pacific regions can further understanding the condition of each area, which is the foundation of researching and discussing specific topics.Geographic Research Methods and Application: The basic courses of this division are the required techniques of applying geographic knowledge, including cartography, geographic statistics, geographic information introduction, field trips, and geographic thought. Cartography is the basis of reading and making maps；statistic is a necessary tool in science；geographic information introduction is to use computer to analyze huge data. The best lab of applied geography is our living surroundings; field trips can teach us how to observe and record it；geographic thought can help us understand more about our world.
  4. Education of Geography Division
    A suitable high school teacher of geography has to obtain not only perfect professional knowledge, but also practiced teaching skills. In order to train the skills, Education of Geography Division will provide courses for people who want to take teachers of geography as their lifetime jobs. The courses of this division includes：1.Teaching methods and material: lectures combine theories and application.2.Teaching practice：this subject is the practice of “teaching methods and material”, including teaching field trips, on-the-spot teaching practice, and discussions. 3.Teaching evaluation：introduction to theories of teaching evaluation, practice, and discussion. 4.Teaching media：emphasizing on both theories and practice. 5.Tendency of educational development：lectures and discussion.6.Seminar: monographic discussion.
  5. Graduate and Doctoral Division
    To students of 1st year, we focus on important new geographic theories and research methods; to students of 2nd and 3rd year, we emphasize on monographic research and essay writing；furthermore, students have to invite instructors to direct their researches, and during essay writing, instructors and graduate students keep close contact. The essay has to be presented in front of all instructors for 3 times before applying for the oral examination.

Contact Us

Tel: 886-2-7734-1655
Fax: 886-2-2369-1770
Website: http://www.geo.ntnu.edu.tw/en/about/pages.php?ID=about1
E-mail: geo@deps.ntnu.edu.tw

 << Back to Departments
Labels: