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?