Geography Teaching Today

The KS3 Resources strand of the Action Plan for Geography is run by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Planning for the new Key Stage 3 geography curriculum is taking place now and will continue throughout 2008 to 2010 as most teachers adapt their curriculum in a staged process e.g. Year 7 during 2007-2008, Year 8 in 2008-2009 and Year 9 in 2009-2010.

This short module is a suggestion for greater involvement of students with the curriculum making process. One strategy is through making opportunities in geography lessons for students to interact with aspects of the curriculum document itself.

Curriculum documents can be found at the new National Curriculum website and National Curriculum Geography key stage 3

Working with and responding to students' understanding of the curriculum document is just one example of more active student participation in curriculum making. In many schools, there are good examples of effective participation by students within geography departments - the key to such effective participation is where teachers have created opportunities and time for student involvement to move from a passive to more active role in aspects of the department's planning and development.

The ideas presented here originate from a South Gloucestershire geography one-day conference held at the University of the West of England in July 2007 where secondary geography teachers and Key Stage 3 students came together to discuss their interpretations of what the new geography curriculum meant for them.

The session was led by Mark Jones PGCE Secondary Geography Tutor
University of the West of England, Bristol.

1. Why involve students in making the curriculum?
2. How can we work with the ‘Importance of Geography’ statement?
3. How can we work with the ‘Key Concepts’?

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