Geography and Higher EducationAuthor(s): Alan JenkinsSource: Area, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1979), pp. 19-20Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20001425 .

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Annual Conference 19

of Mathematics, Durham), representing the pro-Tukey lobby, and A. S. C. Ehrenberg (London Business School), representing the anti-Tukey lobby. Besag began the session by reviewing some of the EDA strategies adopted by Tukey. Using simple illustrations of box plots, stem and leaf plots, the median polish method, resistant regression, and diagnostic plots, he demonstrated that the essence of EDA involves getting a 'feel' for a set of data with the help of imaginative graphical displays, robust numerical summaries, and examination of fitted and residual ('smooth' and 'rough') compo nents of variation. His presentation was complemented by a paper from N. J. Cox (Durham) in which non-linear smoothing based on running medians, one of the EDA

methods with considerable potential for geographers, was discussed. Following this, Ehrenberg presented the anti-Tukey case. After a humorous attack on Tukey's some what unusual terminology which he believes does not aid communication, he outlined his major objections to Tukey's approach. Crudely stated, these are that most of the statistical data which professionals see are by definition repetitive, and much data analysis is therefore comparative rather than exploratory. He believes that the task of the professional is to exploit prior knowledge in the analysis of new data (the strategy of data reduction rather than exploration), and he attacks Tukey for giving no clues as to how his exploratory procedures would link with the later stages of model-building on which the development of scientific understanding and successful practical applica tions depend. Following discussion of Ehrenberg's views, the session concluded with a discussion of I. D. H. Shepherd's (Middlesex Polytechnic) interactive computer package,

NUDE (Numerical Data Exploration), which offers the student a means of rapidly and effortlessly exploring single batches of numerical data. When released to other com puter centres later this year, it promises to be a very useful aid in the teaching of data analysis.

The second session began with a series of short papers. These dealt with a set of statistical methods which are more conventional than Tukey's EDA procedures, but

which nevertheless can be used to explore data structures. J. W. Shepherd (Birkbeck) presented the AID (Automatic Interaction Detection) algorithm as an initial means of exposing the inherent substance and form of large data sets. R. I. Ferguson (Stirling) presented an explorer's guide to regression in which he argued against the use of step wise regression and in favour of third-variable analysis using simple graphical and calculator techniques. D. G. Pringle (Maynooth) demonstrated how Simon-Blalock

models could be usefully adopted to explore cause and effect relationships in geographi cal data. Finally, J. Odland (Indiana) presented an exploratory analysis of the spatio temporal trends in the patterns of residential deterioration in an American city.

The second session concluded with a discussion of the problems of testing hypoth eses on spatially-aggregated or zonal data by S. Openshaw (Newcastle), and with a demonstration of the interactive data handling and display system designed for the

North West Industry Research Unit by P. E. Lloyd (Manchester), M. J. Blakemore (Bristol), B. J. Devereux (Cambridge) and D. E. Reeve (City of Liverpool College of

Higher Education). After the formal paper sessions, small groups were given the oppor tunity to use both the latter system and the NUDE package, and the symposium ended in an appropriate 'exploring by doing', interactive mode.

Neil Wrigley University of Bristol

Geography and higher education

H. B. Rodgers (Manchester) asked participants to give a dead duck a decent burial but warned that the death agonies of ducks are often prolonged. The lamented duck was the School Council's proposal to replace the traditional three A levels studied in the sixth form by three Nand two Flevels. This proposal appeared to have been shot down but the Secretary of State has still to announce the official death.

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20 Annual Conference

The arguments for such a radical change in the curriculum were threefold: to meet the needs of the new 'less academic' sixth former, to broaden the curriculum, and to postpone the choice of the subject(s) to be studied in higher education. A. Frey (Bristol) argued that higher education should make its views known but remember that most sixth form students did not go on to college. But naturally, it was the likely effects of such proposals on geographical higher education that concerned most participants. E. W. Lewis (Middlesex Polytechnic), reporting on a GA/IBG survey of the views of geography departments, stated that, though there was a broad sympathy for the re form's objectives, there was a division of opinion on its likely effects on college teach ing. Some departments (particularly those in universities that emphasized single honours degrees) were concerned that students would enter higher education with a reduced geographical knowledge, and a number suggested a 4 year degree would be necessary in order to achieve present standards. By contrast the multi-subject degree institutions (largely the polytechnics and colleges) welcomed the possibility of students

with a broader-based knowledge. To S. Gregory (Sheffield) the teaching implications were clearly that 'we might have to start planning what we teach'.

The indications that the N and F proposals were unlikely to be implemented made the remarks of Rodgers on alternative ways to meet the reform's objectives very timely, for it was clear that they still carried official favour. The likelihood that the pattern of sixth-form examinations is to be changed suggests that the duck is still flapping.

Alan Jenkins Oxford Polytechnic

Submitted paper sessions A crowded conference programme resulted unavoidably in light audiences for submitted papers, but P. R. Odell, Chairman of the first session, welcomed the contributors by stressing that submitted papers were a valuable expression of individual initiative by

members of the Institute. The first paper, by J. B. Bourke, J. A. Giggs and D. S. Ebdon (Nottingham), repre

sented the combined work of members of the departments of geography and surgery and examined variations in the incidence and spatial distribution of 179 patients over the age of 45 with primary acute pancreatitis in Nottingham, 1969-76. J. A. Giggs, presenting the paper, indicated that, although the disease was fairly common, it was usually fatal in its first attack. The geographical distribution of the disease has been looked at before, but this was the first intra-urban study. A possible link with a (as yet unidentified) property of domestic water supply was suggested by the statistically significant concentration of patients in the Burton Joyce water supply area. Residential histories of patients prior to their first attack are being traced and space-time clustering of attacks examined in case bacteria are involved. The continuing importance of applied studies in medical geography was clearly demonstrated.

S. Waterman (Haifa) followed with a thought-provoking paper on ideology and events in Israeli human landscapes. He first highlighted the contrast between the high degree of actual urbanization in Israel and the ideology and consequent settlement policies, which, since the beginning of the century, have been consciously anti-urban. The emphasis in most writing from the early 1950s onward has been on the relative suc cess of policies of population dispersal and new town development, yet the most viru lent absolute growth has taken place in the Tel-Aviv Metropolitan areas, not in the periphery. That large cities were anathema to politicians and planners led also to lack of recognition and consequent neglect of their problems. The images of idealism have exaggerated the role of Kibbutzim, now involving as little as 2-5 % of the total popula tion, with industry playing an important role. Co-operative smallholder settlements

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