Geography  Skills  Unlocked  

John  Butler  OAM  

Geography  Skills  Unlocked  

•   Curriculum  Strands  –  content,  concepts,  geography  skills,  inquiry,  thinking  skills  

•   Geography  skills    •   Thinking  skills    •   Inquiry    •   Linking  the  Strands  

Importance  and  links  

Inquiry    Content  

 Concepts    Skills  

Using  the  new  AGTA  book  as  a  resource  

•   Inquiry  /  thinking  skills  /  geography  skills  /  integra@ng  skills  with  inquiry  

•   Junior  vs  senior  students  •   Leading  students  to  it  /  ways  of  using  it  •   Incorpora@ng  it  into  inquiries,  fieldwork,  specific  content  in  topics  

INQUIRY  These  ques@ons  are  the  kind  that  are  being  asked  by  21st  century  

students.  

•   How  can  endangered  species  be  saved?  •   Will  we  be  able  to  feed  all  the  world’s  popula@on?  •   How  can  we  limit  further  global  warming?  •   What  kinds  of  jobs,  and  in  what  places,  will  there  be  for  us  in  the  

future?  •   How  can  we  raise  the  standard  of  living  of  people  in  the  poorest  

countries?  •   What  effects  will  the  size  and  economic  power  of  China  and  India  

have  on  us?  •   In  what  ways  can  access  to  places  and  services  be  improved  for  

disadvantaged  people?  •   Will  there  be  an  increasing  risk  from  bushfires,  floods  and  droughts  

in  Australia?        

Stages  of  inquiries  and  inves@ga@ons  

Observing  and  ques@oning  

Planning,  collec@ng  and  evalua@ng  

Processing,  analysing,  

interpre@ng  and  concluding  

Communica@ng  

Reflec@ng  and  responding  

Inquiry  stages  

•   Observing  and  ques@oning  •   Planning,  collec@ng,  evalua@ng  •   Processing,  analysing,  interpre@ng,  concluding  •   Communica@ng  

•   Reflec@ng  and  responding  

Not  all  inquiries  will  include  all  of  these  

Enabling,  enhancing,  empowering  •   Enabling  inquiry  

–    enable  children  to  put  forward  their  own  ques@ons,  which  they  begin  to  inves@gate  systema@cally  to  iden@fy  their  own  responses.  

•   Enhancing  inquiry:  –    encourage  children  to  take  an  increasing  level  of  responsibility  for  

iden@fying  the  ques@ons  to  inves@gate,  within  a  disciplined  framework.  The  teacher  challenges  the  children's  ques@ons  and  approaches  

•   Empowering  inquiry:    –   children  are  encouraged  to  take  direct  responsibility  for  iden@fying,  

refining,  using  and  evalua@ng  their  enquiry  ques@ons  and  processes.  They  select  their  approaches  and  methods,  to  be  able  to  achieve  the  challenge  they  set  themselves.    

At  its  core,  geographical  inquiry  is  about  facilita@ng  children  to  be:  

•  connected    •  involved  •  aware  •  mo?vated  •  challenged  •  geographers  •  ci?zens  

Teasing  out  broad  inquiry  ques@ons  

Will  there  be  enough  water?  

What  %  of  water  is  fresh?  

What  are  sources  of  fresh  water?  

Can  these  be  increased?  

What  are  possible  new  sources?  

Which  uses  of  water  are  

increasing  most  quickly?  

What  is  the  world  popula@on  growing  to?  

What  uses  of  water  are  there  besides  drinking?  

Inquiry  in  lessons:    Visible  learning  (Ha_e)  

•   Learning  is  the  explicit  goal  •   Learning  is  appropriately  challenging  •   Teacher  and  student  both  ascertain  whether  goal  is  abained  

•   Feedback  is  given  and  sought  •   Ac@ve,  passionate  and  engaging  people  par@cipa@ng  in  the  act  of  learning  

‘Visible  learning’  applied  to  Inquiry  

•   Teachers  need  to  demonstrate,  model  and  explain  effec@ve  learning  

•   Teachers  need  to  enthuse,  challenge,  direct,  mentor,  evaluate,  advise  

The  skills  of  Inquiry  

1.   Informa@on  processing  skills  2.   Cri@cal  and  crea@ve  thinking  skills  3.   Communica@ng  skills  

4.   Reflec@ve  and  metacogni@ve  skills  

Star@ng  points  for  inquiries  in  teaching  

•   The  need  to  know  –  S@mulus  material  

–  Observa@ons  –  Real  experiences  /  visits  /  speakers    –  Ques@ons  –  Fieldwork  –  Virtual  experiences  –  Hypothesizing  

Relevance  of  La?tude  

INQUIRY  

•   Discussion:    Inquiries  –  samples  of  headlines  and  photos  –  invent  more  inquiries  

–   (Show  pages/photos/headlines  from  book)  

Specific  Geography  Skills  and  Techniques  

There  are  a  group  of  skills  which  geographers  use  most  ohen,  and  it  is  these  skills  which  need  to  be  prac@sed  and  developed  in  Geography  

•   map  skills  •   field  techniques,    •   photographs,    •   sta@s@cs,    •   graphs,    •   diagrams    

Geography  Skills  

•   Ques?onnaire:      –  Have  taught  and  used  oKen  /    –  Have  had  some  experience  with  /    –  need  to  learn  more  /    –  have  never  used  or  had  experience  with  

•   Discussion  of  results  

Geography  Skills  

•   Discussion:  When  and  how  taught?  

•   Discussion:    Which  skills  need  direct  instruc?on?  Which  are  best  developed  at  need?  

•   hbps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcEwzQs8AZY    

•   hbps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqPMYGDxCr0    

Thinking  Skills  

Thinking  skills  –  some  methods  

•   PMI  (plus/minus/interes@ng)  •   SWOT  (strengths/weaknesses/opportuni@es/threats)  

•   Thinking  hats  •   What  ifs?  

•   Thought  provokers    (GeogSpace)  •   Choosing  relevant  evidence  

Crea@ve  thinking  

•   De  Bono’s  techniques  for  ques@oning  and  analysing  issues  

•   Six  thinking  hats-­‐  –  White  –  informa@on  and  facts  –  Yellow  –  posi@ve  and  op@mis@c  –  Black  –  judgment  –  Red  –  feelings  and  intui@on  –  Green  –  crea@ve  –  Blue  –  managing  process  

Crea@ve  thinking  

•   PMI  

Plus      +  

Minus        -­‐  Interes@ng          i  

What  ifs?  

•   What  if  I  ate  only  unprocessed  foods  for  a  year    •   What  if  the  whole  world  became  vegetarian?  

•   What  if  the  government  made  car  travel  more  costly  to  discourage  its  use?  

•   What  if  each  person  was  allocated  only  a  certain  amount  of  water  and  electricity?  

•   What  if  all  electricity  in  SA  was  produced  from  the  sun  or  wind?  

Thinking  skills  -­‐  photographs  

•   Discrimina@ng:  

•    Look  at  the  photograph  which  shows  part  of  Sacramento  in  USA.  Make  three  lists  of  objects  fi_ng  into  each  of  these  categories:  Modern  things,  Old  (nineteenth  century)  things,  things  which  are  made  to  look  old  but  are  really  modern    

Modern  things,  Old  (nineteenth  century)  things,  things  which  are  made  to  look  old  but  are  really  modern    

Thinking  skills  -­‐  photographs  

•   Predic@ng:    

•   Look  at  the  photograph  which  shows  mesas  in  Monument  Valley  desert  area  of  USA.  Predict  what  this  area  might  look  like  in  200  years  and  in  10,  000  years.  

Predict  what  this  area  might  look  like  in  200  years  and  in  10,  000  years.  

Thinking  skills  -­‐  photographs  

•   Empathising:  

•    Look  at  the  photograph  which  shows  peak  hour  traffic  in  a  village  on  the  River  Elbe  in  Germany.  Write  what  might  be  the  thoughts  of  the  car  drivers,  the  house  owners,  and  the  tourists  taking  this  photograph.  

Write  what  might  be  the  thoughts  of  the  car  drivers,  the  house  owners,  and  the  tourists  taking  this  photograph.  

Developing  analy@cal  skills  

•   Read  through  the  informa@on  about  la@tude  and  longitude.    

•   Analyse  the  informa@on  by  breaking  it  into  smaller  pieces.    

•   Which  pieces  give  you  historical  informa@on?    

•   Which  pieces  inform  you  about  the  lines  on  maps?  

Thinking  Skills  -­‐  Relevance  

•   An  inquiry  into  changes  in  Byron  Bay  

•   Relevant  and  irrelevant  facts.  Sort  these  facts  into  two  groups:  relevant  to  the  inquiry  into  changes  /  irrelevant  to  the  inquiry  into  changes.    Then  sort  the  relevant  facts  into  Most  important  /  less  important  

Thought  provokers  

•   GeogSpace  examples  

Thinking  Skills  

•   Explaining  •   Analyzing  •   Seeing  relevance  •   Crea@ve  thinking  •   Discrimina@ng  •   Being  construc@vely  cri@cal  •   Logical  reasoning  •   Transforming  informa@on          

•   (con@nued>)  

Thinking  skills  (cont)  

•   Predic@ng  •   Evalua@ng  •   Empathising  •   Synthesizing  •   Conceptualising  •   Iden@fying  cause  and  effect  •   Comparing  •   Futures  thinking  

The  links  between  inquiries  and  skills    

•   To  do  an  effec@ve  inquiry  in  Geography  you  need  a  range  of  skills.    

•   Some  of  these  are  generic  skills  that  are  used  in  any  subjects.    

•   Some  are  skills  that  are  more  specific  to  Geography.  

•   All  of  these  skills  need  to  be  learned  and  prac@sed  in  a  well-­‐managed  educa@on.  

LINKING  STRANDS  

•   Discussion:  Put  together  skills/inquiries/content  for  sample  Achievement  Standard  of  Year  9  (Biomes  and  Food  security).  

•      

Using  the  new  AGTA  book  as  a  resource  

•   Inquiry  /  thinking  skills  /  geography  skills  /  integra@ng  skills  with  inquiry  

•   Junior  vs  senior  students  •   Leading  students  to  it  /  ways  of  using  it  •   Incorpora@ng  it  into  inquiries,  fieldwork,  specific  content  in  topics