Geography Teaching Today

Curriculum Making

Curriculum making is the creative process that 'puts the plan into action' (although one doesn't necessarily simply follow the other!). All teachers apply curriculum making skills, whilst planning may be led by a designated individual in school (though effective planning tends to involve colleagues as much as possible). Curriculum making is concerned with content selection and selecting appropriate learning materials and opportunities, lesson sequencing, assessment opportunities - and 'making it happen'.

Curriculum development

Curriculum development can be thought of as an umbrella term that can encompass design (e.g. Programme of Study), planning (e.g. Schemes of Work) and making (lesson sequences). In this sense, all teachers are involved in curriculum development at some level - but others too, such as textbook writers and those involved in funded curriculum development projects - www.geography.org.uk/projects.

Elements of learning

According to HMI, many years ago, it is useful to think of learning consisting of several 'elements'. These are: Knowledge, Understanding, Skills and Values. Examination specifications often use these distinctions in devising assessment grids, for example at GCSE.

There are of course issues - for example, saying precisely what the difference is between knowledge and understanding.

However, one of the current fashions is to talk of the skills based curriculum (or 'competency based' curriculum), as if 'subjects' are old fashioned and no longer matter. This is to deny the other three elements of learning. Learning 'skills' without serious consideration of knowledge, understanding and values - derived from clear aims - is risky. Skills need context and content, both of which in turn need to be worthwhile, meaningful and interesting. This is where subjects come in!

Aee also Aims

Enquiry

Geography in schools lends itself to enquiry - ultimately responding to young people's natural curiosity and their questions, such as these:

Identity: Who am I? Where do I come from? Who is my family? What is my ‘story'? Who are the people around me? Where do they come from? What is their 'story'?

Place in the world: Where do I live? How does it look? How do I feel about it? How is it changing? How do I want it to change?

The Physical world: What is the world (and this place) made of? Why do things move? What becomes of things?

The Human world: Who decides on who gets what, where and why? What is fair? How do we handle differences of opinion?

It is helpful to think of enquiry pervading geography - rather than sectioning it under 'fieldwork' or 'decision making'. Margaret Roberts' brilliant book, Learning Through Enquiry, helps us explore the full potential of enquiry in geography.