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www.mageoged.webs.com. Progress(ion) in Geography. David Lambert Professor of Geography Education Institute of Education London. School Geography in England. NC to be revised: simplified and to focus only on the ‘core knowledge’ of academic subjects - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
www.mageoged.webs.com
Progress(ion) in Geography David Lambert
Professor of Geography EducationInstitute of Education
London
School Geography in England
NC to be revised: simplified and to focus only on the ‘core knowledge’ of academic subjects
Less concern with skills and competences; more concern with academic rigour
English Baccalaureate: Eng, Ma, Sc, Lang and either history or geography (and what else?)
Greater university involvement in A level specifications
State funded academies (and ‘free schools’) no longer have to follow the NC
Secretary of State for EducationMichael Gove (2010-present)
Reclaiming the ‘knowledge agenda’
This talk will:
• Not make the mistake of ‘100 academics’
• Establish a principled position for a strong school geography
• Embrace a progressive, knowledge-led geography curriculum
The emergence of a learning “fetish”?
Where ‘learning’ is regarded as:
• A good thing in itself - and assumed to be value free in this sense. (It is not. Learning can be trivial, dangerous or wrong)
• An essentially scientific or technical process –thus, with correct technique, learning can be ‘accelerated’, as if this were a desirable end in itself. (But understanding aspects of science, geography, history or art can be counter-intuitive, and require sustained, sometimes painstaking effort)
• Paramount. Teaching is subservient to, and led by, the learning. We become embarrassed by teaching, and instead talk only about ‘facilitating’ learning.(A profession that abrogates responsibility in this way may be one that has lost confidence in itself - and the future)
The curriculum as an entire planned learning experience underpinned by a broad set of common values and purposesThe curriculum as an entire planned learning experience underpinned by a broad set of common values and purposes
Three key questions
3How well
are we achieving our aims?
Assessmentfit for purpose
Whole curriculum dimensions
Learning approaches
Components
Accountability measures
Every Child Matters outcomes
Focus for learning
Curriculum aims
Be healthy Stay safe Enjoy and achieve Make a positive contribution Achieve economic wellbeing
Attitudes and attributeseg determined, adaptable, confident,
risk-taking, enterprising
Knowledge and understandingeg big ideas that shape the world
Skills eg literacy, numeracy, ICT, personal,
learning and thinking skills
Successful learnerswho enjoy learning, make progress and achieve
Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society
Confident individualswho are able to lead safe, healthy and fulfilling lives
The curriculum aims to enable all young people to becomeThe curriculum aims to enable all young people to become
To make learning and teaching more effective so that learners understand quality and how to improveTo make learning and teaching more effective so that learners understand quality and how to improve
Embraces peer- and
self-assessment
Uses tests and tasks
appropriately
Links to national standards which are consistently
interpreted
Helps identify clear targets for
improvement
Gives helpful feedback for the learner and other
stakeholders
Maximises pupils’
progress
Promotes a broad and engaging curriculum
Draws on a wide range of
evidence of pupils’ learning
Is integral to effective
teaching and learning
Informs future planning and
teaching
Statutory expectations
PSHEPW EW+FC
PEMuMFL RE SCMaICTHiGeEnD & TCiA & D
Physical development
Personal, social and emotional development
Mathematical development
Knowledge and understanding of the world
Communication, language and literacy
Creative development
1What
are we trying to achieve?
2How do we
organise learning?
Attainment and improved standards
Behaviour and attendance
Further involvement in education, employment or training
Civic participation
Healthy lifestyle choices
To secure
Including all learners with opportunities
for learner choice and personalisation
Using a range of audience and
purpose
Matching time to learning need eg deep, immersive and regular
frequent learning
In tune with human
development
A range of approaches eg enquiry, active
learning, practical and constructive
Building on learning beyond the school including community and business links
Opportunities for spiritual, moral, social,
cultural, emotional, intellectual and
physical development
Overarching themes that have a significance for individuals and society, and provide relevant learning contexts:Identity and cultural diversity - Healthy lifestyles – Community participation – Enterprise – Global dimension and sustainable development –
Technology and the media – Creativity and critical thinking.
Lessons Out of schoolExtended hoursRoutinesEventsLocations Environment
National Curriculum ‘Big Picture’ [QCDA 2007]
Some QuestionsIs it OK that students can complete their school geography(mostly at 14 but in some cases at 18 years) without:
• Understanding latitude, longitude and time zones?
• Knowledge of ocean currents and world wind patterns?
• More than a patchy knowledge of the world’s major biomes?
• (Nick Gibb’s favourite) the certain knowledge that Belgium is a country?
• Understanding the merits (and disadvantages) of Mercator’s projection?
• Knowledge of glaciation and its impacts especially in the northern hemisphere?
Geographical Association ‘Manifesto’ [2009]Reasons
Growing ‘genericism’ in the curriculum• Skills rather than knowledge• Learning rather than teaching• Themes/issues rather than subjects
Political influences on the curriculum• Citizenship?• Sustainability?
ContentsThe subject resourceThinking geographicallyLiving geographyExploration and enquiryReal world fieldwork Young people’s geographies Curriculum Making animoto_video shor
t.mp4
Geographical Association: ‘making geography happen’
Part of The Action Plan for Geography 2009-11
Good quality ‘curriculumMaking’
Based on pupils’ work
Attempting to showprogression
The Geographical Association’s Geography Curriculum Consultation
2011
Rationale for handling geographical knowledge
- Kn1: geographical contexts; ‘core knowledge’
- Kn2: conceptual content knowledge
- Kn3: ‘procedural’ knowledge andapplied practical skills
www.geography.org.uk/getinvolved/NCconsultation
The Geographical Association “Thinking Geographically”National Curriculum proposals 2012
i. Organised by place, space and environment
ii. Stressing ‘relational thinking’ :- for example, with the following ‘couplets’ (after Peter Jackson)
• place and space• scale and connection• proximity and distance• people and environment
Back to basics!(that is, the fundamental question)
What is school geography for?What is school geography for?
• The world beyond experience• Concepts and theories (‘systematicity’)• Disciplined communities
All young people should have access to geographical knowledge, and to encounter the world as an object of disciplined thought
Applying the analysis in real life
Climate change is “too important to be left to the whim of individual teachers”.
"It appears climate change is being systematically removed from the curriculum, which is not acceptable...” (UKYCC)
Applying the analysis in real life
Climate change is “too important to be left to the whim of individual teachers”. "It appears climate change is being systematically removed from the curriculum, which is not acceptable...” (UKYCC)
What has been removed (from KS3)?
‘Exploring sustainable development andits impact on environmental interaction and climate change.’
In other words, little of substance. And note, understanding climate and climate patterns was not required in the pos!
Catching our breath
What are the important distinctions between:What are the important distinctions between:
• Curriculum and pedagogy?• School subject and university discipline?• Experience of the world (in the everyday) and the world as an object of thought (in school)?• Knowledge and skills?• Content and aims?
And how do we keep these entities connected?
“Bringing Knowledge Back In”
• Schools are special places (they are not ‘everyday places’)
• Inducting young people into ‘powerful knowledge’
• Clear distinction between curriculum and pedagogy
(Michael Young 2008)
Powerful Knowledge?Characterised by these features:
• It is abstract and theoretical (conceptual)• It is part of a system of thought• It is dynamic, evolving, changing • It is sometimes counter-intuitive • It exists outside the direct experience of the
teacher and the learner
It enables societies to think the ‘unthinkable’ and It enables societies to think the ‘unthinkable’ and the ‘yet-to-be-thought’. the ‘yet-to-be-thought’.
Powerful Knowledge?Example: ‘Cities’
Many children have a working, everyday knowledge of living in a city ...But geography lessons make the city an object of thought, asking for example:– In what circumstances do cities grow?– How are cities organised?– Can cities be regulated, planned and controlled?– What is the ideal city?
(‘to enable societies to think the ‘unthinkable’ (‘to enable societies to think the ‘unthinkable’ and the ‘yet-to-be-thought’)and the ‘yet-to-be-thought’)
What kind of (curriculum) What kind of (curriculum) FFuture do we want?uture do we want?
F1 subject delivery – of knowledge for its own sake; traditional subjects: under-socialised knowledge
F2 skills and ‘learning to learn’ – knowledge is constructed: over-socialised knowledge; subject divisions are artificial. Experiential.
F3 subjects are not given (as in F1), but not arbitrary either (as in F2)
led by ‘... the epistemic rules of specialist communities’ to provide ways to understand the world objectively, and take pupils beyond their everyday experience.
(Michael Young 2008; 2010)
White Paper: The Importance of Teaching .... and ‘core knowledge’
‘The National Curriculum should set out clearly the core knowledge and understanding that all children should be expected to acquire in the course of their schooling. (para 4.7)
Does this imply F1?
White Paper: The Importance of Teaching .... and ‘core knowledge’
‘The National Curriculum should set out clearly the core knowledge and understanding that all children should be expected to acquire in the course of their schooling. (para 4.7)
Does this imply F1? Or F3?
Returning to ‘curriculum’
From a recent email from a senior official at the Training Agency, London
“I am looking into how we might need to move from a position where secondary teachers deliver a syllabus leading to an exam, to one in which they are shaping the curriculum”.
Towards a new era of localisedcurriculum making?
Student Experiences
Geography: the disciplineTeacher Choices
Underpinned by Key Concepts
Thinking Geographically
Which learning activity ?
Does this take the learner beyond what they already know ?
Curriculum Making
www.geography.org.uk/cpdevents/curriculummaking
The moral implications of teaching geography Some questions:
1.What do children learn (anyhow) through day to day experience?2.What do the children need to be exposed to in geography lessons?3.In what ways is learning geography in school an educational achievement?4.How does it enable students: eg to travel ‘with a different view’?
Some practical implications of an ‘F3’ geography Some issues
Geography is a high status academic subject:• An A-level ‘facilitating’ subject• A part of the English Baccalaureate
And yet, geography is also a powerful knowledge for all (ie 5-14 years)
Issue 1Issue 1 Continuity and progression • KS2-3
• Raising the profile of ‘geography’ in years 5 and 6?• KS3- GCSE
• Content specific GCSE national criteria?• Place specific GCSE specifications?
Some practical implications of an ‘F3’ geography Some issues
Geography is a high status academic subject:• An A-level ‘facilitating’ subject• A part of the English Baccalaureate
And yet, geography is also a powerful knowledge for all
Issue 2Issue 2 Breadth, depth and challenge• Is the abolition of level descriptions a problem, or an opportunity?• How to distinguish extensive Kn1 from intensive Kn2
- in our day to day teaching?- in GCSE examinations?