Download Implications for teaching and learning in Geography

Curriculum change: implications for
teaching and learning in geography
Steve Brace
Head of Education and Outdoor Learning
Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
www.rgs.org
[email protected]
Where is geography heading?
The geographical terrain
5-16
• National Curriculum
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Statutory status at KS1, 2 and 3
Draft proposals for Geography programme of study Feb 2012
Final NC to be published autumn 2013 for teaching 2014
Current NC (with exceptions at KS1 and KS4 in English, maths
and science) as been dis-applied from September 2013.
• GCSE & EBac
– 2011/12 4% rise. Highest for 13 years, 180K entries
– But it’s possible not to study a humanity for the ‘Measure of 8’
16-18 and beyond
• A Level
– AS  A2 76% students progress, second highest level
– Geography as a ‘facilitating subject’ (Russell Group:Informed
Choices)
– A Level entries increasing, 32K entries
– (Distribution of entries)
• Further study at HE and employment
– ESRC review: UK human geography ranked first internationally
– Geog. has second lowest level of graduate unemployment
– Entry to geography degree courses is holding up well
Setting the scene for KS3
The National Curriculum.
RGS-IBG views
• Explicit geographical place knowledge,
alongside skills & understanding
• Rebalancing human and physical geography
• Geographical skills, maps, globes & GIS
• Progression (not repetition),
• KS1 vocab KS2 features  KS3 processes
• Fieldwork at all stages
• It ‘looks like geography’ to non-specialists
• Firmer underpinning for more complex study
at GCSE & A Level
• (Shorter!)
Draft National Curriculum
• Purpose of study:
A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a
curiosity and fascination about the world & its people that will remain
with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with
knowledge about diverse places, people, resources & environments,
together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical &
human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about
the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction
between physical & human processes, and of the formation of
landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge provides the
tools and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at
different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.
Aims
 Develop knowledge of the location of places of global significance, their
defining physical and human characteristics and how they relate to one
another; this place knowledge should provide a sound context for
understanding geographical processes
 Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human
geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and
how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
 Skills: collect, analyse & communicate with a range of data gathered
through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of
geographical processes & interpret a range of sources of geographical
information, inc. maps, globes, aerial photographs & GIS, communicate
geographical information in a variety of ways, maps & writing at length.
Progression through the
primary
• Key Stage 1. Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the
UK and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific
vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to
use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance
their locational awareness.
• Key Stage 2. Pupils should extend their knowledge and
understanding beyond the local area and the UK to include Europe,
N&S America. This will include the location and characteristics of a
range of the world’s most significant human and physical features.
They should develop their use of geographical tools and skills to
enhance their locational and place knowledge.
Progression into KS3
• Key Stage 3.
• Pupils should consolidate and extend their knowledge of the world’s
major countries and their physical and human features.
• They should understand how geographical processes interact to
create distinctive human and physical landscapes that change over
time.
• In doing so, they should become aware of increasingly complex
geographical systems in the world around them.
• They should develop greater competence in using geographical
tools and skills, including analysing and interpreting different data
sources, and so continue to enrich their locational knowledge and
spatial awareness.
Progression in locational
knowledge
 KS1. Name and locate the world’s continents and oceans.
 KS2. Locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on
Europe and North and South America and concentrating on
their environmental regions, key physical and human
characteristics, countries & major cities
 KS3. Extend their locational knowledge and deepen their
spatial awareness of the world’s countries using maps of the
world to focus on Africa, South and East Asia (inc China and
India), the Middle East and Russia, focusing on their
environmental regions, including polar and hot deserts, key
physical and human characteristics, countries and major cities
Locational knowledge:
the UK
 KS1. Name, locate and identify characteristics of the four
countries and capital cities of the UK and its surrounding seas
 KS2. Name and locate counties and cities of the UK,
geographical regions and their identifying human and physical
characteristics, including hills, mountains, cities, rivers, key
topographical features and land-use patterns; & understand
how some of these aspects have changed over time
 KS3. Not specified … but as a context for human and physical
processes
As geographers we know
where places are …
• Table groups
• At registration
• Geog in the news
• Y5 ‘champion’
135 capitals and
their countries
Progressions in fieldwork
 KS1. Simple fieldwork & observational skills to
study the geography of their school and the key
human and physical features of its surrounding
environment.
 KS2. Fieldwork to observe, measure & record
the human & physical features in the local area
using a range of methods, including sketch
maps, plans & graphs, & digital technologies.
 KS3. Fieldwork to collect, analyse & draw
conclusions from geographical data, using
multiple sources of increasingly complex
information.
Key Stage 3
Processes
• understand geographical similarities and differences through the
study of human and physical geography of a region or area within
Africa and a region or area within Asia
• understand, through the use of detailed place-based exemplars at a
variety of scales, the key processes in:
– physical geography relating to: glaciation, plate tectonics, rocks,
soils, weathering, geological timescales, weather and climate,
rivers and coasts
– human geography relating to: population, international
development, economic activity in the primary, secondary,
tertiary and quaternary sectors, urbanisation, and the use of
natural resources
• understand how human and physical processes interact to have an
impact on and form distinctive landscapes
Key Stage 3:
Skills
• build on their knowledge of globes, maps and atlases
and use these geographical tools routinely in the
classroom and in the field
• interpret OS maps in the classroom and the field,
including using six-figure coordinates and scale,
topographical and other thematic mapping, and aerial
and satellite photographs
• use GIS to view, analyse and interpret places and data
• use fieldwork to collect, analyse and draw conclusions
from geographical data, using multiple sources of
increasingly complex information.
Consultation Feedback
• Geography has generally been seen to be
in a good place
• Some suggestions for reordering content
• Clear need for exemplification alongside
the curriculum
• “Climate change”
• July 2nd drafts to be published (TBC)
Implications #1
Potential to strengthen geographical
knowledge, understanding and skills of
pupils at Y6 – 7 transition
– But primary colleagues will need subject
knowledge and pedagogical support
Explicit fieldwork (& reduced H&S red tape)
– Convincing SMT teams
– (Transition through fieldwork)
Implications #2
GIS in Key Stage 3
• Using GIS technologies (not just Google
Earth)
Setting case studies in a locational
(geographical) content
- Not just a series of seemingly unconnected
case studies
Implications #3
• Strengthening physical processes
‘What I now have to teach about glaciers and
soils!’
• The ‘what’ not the ‘how’
It is a teacher, not content, that makes a
lesson boring or interesting
Implications #4
• Teacher choice over breadth, depth and
range
• But pressures on KS3
– Written as a full 3 year course
• Preparation for GCSE
– Consultations proposed in June for GCSE
content (for first teaching in 2015)
– Likely greater prescription in criteria, CA?
RGS-IBG: what support is
available
1.
2.
3.
4.
Online education resources
CPD including GIS and Fieldwork
Professional accreditation. FRGS, CGeog
Promoting further study and careers with
geography
5. The ‘home of geography’
www.rgs.org/schools
The most important
resource?
• No one forgets a good (geography)
teacher. I didn’t
• Mr Faulkner & Mr (John) Benson
• William Farr CE Comp School, Welton
• Lincoln Christ Hospital School, Lincoln
Thank you
• Steve Brace
• Head of Education & Outdoor Learning
• [email protected]