Subject Leadership CPD Unit
Taking it further
Resources:
The Action Plan for Geography 2006-2008, GA and RGS
Key Stage 3 Geography Programme of Study, QCA
Leszek Iwaskow (2006) 'Learning to make a difference', Primary Geographer 61, pp22-24 - Download p24 (PDF)
Entire article available from the GA website (free to members).
Emma Cook (forthcoming) 'Into Africa', Geography Teacher's Toolkit, GA
No geography? What would be missing?
Geography, like other subjects, serves wider educational goals. One way to identify geography's particular contribution to the curriculum is to think what would be missing if the subject were no longer taught. The Action Plan for Geography summarises what makes geography distinctive.
It educates young people about:
Place - Where places are and why they are different - showing how social, economic and environmental forces combine to create distinctive and diverse localities.
Connectedness - How physical and human environments are related and how human actions impact on the environment, so helping young people to understand the need for a sustainable future.
Scale - Understanding different scales - from local to national to world wide - which is essential in understanding interdependence and global change.
Process - Why and how the world's environments, societies and landscapes are changing - geography is dynamic.
Skills - How to investigate the world for themselves - teamwork in the field, using maps, analysing data, problem solving, and using ICT - and an awareness of social and environmental responsibility.
Since the Action Plan was produced the Key Stage 3 Geography Programme of Study has also been published. The key concepts in the Programme of Study could be another way to represent geography's distinctive role in the curriculum.
In recent years new curriculum priorities have emerged - citizenship, education for sustainable development and preparation for adult life among them. Geography can, rightfully, claim to address each of these priorities and to place them within a wider subject context, helping pupils to make connections. Leszek Iwaskow, HMI, talks about the importance of the subject in primary schools. He says imaginative teachers make good use of geography to develop pupils' awareness of relevant local issues and encourage greater social responsibility within the community. You can read more in his article, 'Learning to make a difference'.
Similarly, initiatives that focus on the ways in which pupils learn, like 'thinking skills' or 'learning to learn' work best when embedded within the context of a subject like geography.
Now do Activity 3
How do concepts help to frame the subject?
The key concepts in the revised Key Stage 3 Geography Programme of Study provide a framework, or 'conceptual architecture', for the subject that has previously been missing from school geography.
The use of concepts has several implications for what we teach, and the way we teach it:
- They provide us with a shared view of geography that enables us to plan a relevant, motivating and meaningful curriculum. This may vary considerably from school to school, but will be recognisably geography.
- They enable us to be more selective about what we teach. Rather than be obsessed with covering content we can, when required, teach certain places, themes or issues in greater depth.
- They help us to design a curriculum with a greater sense of purpose that leads to pupils' conceptual development. With concepts, it is possible to explain to pupils why they are learning something - not just because it is on the syllabus!
- Growing familiarity with concepts helps pupils to grasp what it means to think geographically - to see the point of geography.
- They give the subject greater coherence and a stronger narrative. This makes geography seem less fragmented and it may even support pupils in retaining knowledge for longer.
Geographical concepts should be presented in the spirit of discussion. It is difficult to give simple, copper-bottomed definitions of ideas that are the subject of ongoing debate among academic geographers. However, the key concepts in the revised geography Programme of Study do provide a useful framework for curriculum making (see Curriculum Making CPD Unit).
Now do Activity 4
Now do Activity 5
Taking it Further Part Two
Resources
Key Stage 3 Geography Programme of Study, QCA
Catling, S and Taylor, L (2006) 'Thinking about geographical significance', Primary Geographer, 61, pp35-37- download pp 35
Catling, S and Taylor, L (2006) 'Geographical significance: a useful concept?', Teaching Geography, pp122-125 - download pp122-123
Emma Cook (forthcoming) 'Into Africa', Geography Teacher's Toolkit, GA
What is geographical significance?
The concept of what is geographically significant (and what is not) is central to the process of curriculum making. As subject leaders, teaching a concept-led curriculum, we are responsible for making the decisions about what to teach. Morgan and Lambert state,
"The starting point for curriculum design in geography should be a rigorous and defensible version of the subject matter to be taught in the light of teachers' knowledge and understanding of the subject they teach."
Morgan, J and Lambert, D (2005), Geography: Teaching School Subjects 11-19, London: Routledge
In history, ‘significance' is a key concept in the National Curriculum. Historical significance is not a property of an event itself, but something that others ascribe to that event. In other words, thinking about significance involves making personal judgements and considering the judgements that others have made. The same thinking can be applied to geography and geographical significance. Are some places, patterns, processes or relationships geographically more significant than others? These are the sort of questions that Simon Catling and Liz Taylor asked in their article, 'Geographical significance: a useful concept?' (GA members can download the full version from the GA website).
'Do you have the back of an envelope handy? If so, jot down a list of seven or eight places that are significant to you... It's likely they have personal meaning for you. Would they be significant to the person standing next to you? What about someone who lives on another continent? Are the places you listed geographically significant? That question might be harder to answer... That's why geographical significance is such an interesting idea to play around with. It shines a spotlight right on the big question of what geography is all about.'Catling, S and Taylor, L (2006), 'Geographical significance: a useful concept?", Teaching Geography, pp122-125
Now do Activity 6
How can we use geographical significance in curriculum making?
As we plan the curriculum, the concept of geographical significance can help us to decide which aspects of geography to emphasise, which places to focus on and to design learning activities that will best help pupils to access these. Until recent times the National Curriculum Programme of Study more or less did the job for us. Now, these are decisions that we, as subject leaders, must make. The educationalists, Kincheloe and Steinberg have observed,
The revised Key Stage 3 Geography Programme of Study provides some useful guidance on how to approach the task of curriculum making. Among other things, we are required to provide curriculum opportunities for pupils to:
- Build on and expand their personal experience of geography
- Explore real and relevant contemporary contexts
- Use a range of approaches to enquiries
- Investigate important issues of relevance to the UK and globally
- Make links between geography and other subjects
A recurring theme in this list is relevance - relevance to pupils' lives, relevance to their wider understanding of geography, relevance in the context of the modern world, and relevance to broader educational goals. All of these could be summed up by the concept of geographical significance.
Now do Activity 7
Summary
Geography makes a distinctive contribution to the curriculum. It educates young people about place, connectedness, scale, process and helps them to develop skills. The key concepts in the revised Programme of Study provide a framework for the subject that has been lacking in school geography. They give us a shared view of geography, enable us to select content and help pupils to think geographically.
The concept of geographical significance helps us to decide which aspects of geography to emphasize, which places to focus on and to design learning activities that will best help pupils to access these. As subject leaders we are now responsible for making these decisions.
Now go to In conclusion