1986: Vademecum

Here's an image of my vademecum.... but what is a vademecum?

A vademecum is essentially a guidebook to the sources of information and materials that would be useful for a particular purpose.
In this case, it's a Geographer's vademecum, so it includes some ideas for materials and connections that would be useful for geographers, and geography educators.

In 1986, I started my Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course at Hull University, along with 20 or so other trainee Geography teachers from all sorts of backgrounds. My main subject was Geography of course, and Computer Science was my secondary subject (I later ended up teaching both GCSE and 'A' Level Computer Science as well as Geography).

My tutor was the late Vincent Tidswell, in his last year in the job before he retired. He had an amazing wealth of experience, which we drew on through the course.
Vincent had previously worked at Hereford College of Education, and written several books which were very well known, on themes related to Human Geography. He had also, along with Rex Walford, explored the role of simulation games in education. The Herefordshire Farm Game featured Mr. Brown, the farmer at Canon Pyon and students had to make decision on land-use changes. It became a regular part of my teaching.

Vincent told us that we should be creating materials ourselves for our particular students rather than just using the textbooks... curriculum making was already becoming part of our practice.

John Charles Hancock
Published by G. Philip (1978)
ISBN 10: 0540010316 ISBN 13: 9780540010318