Assignment Two Interactive Workshop Topic: The need to make Geography mandatory from years 6 to 10 James Lymer Rachel Bola Pamela Slack Ashlee Patzwald Tina McDonnell

 Why are participants attending our workshop?  Why is our workshop relevant?  What are some key questions being addressed?  What is the focus of our workshop? Rationale

 Goal 1: Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence  Goal 2: All young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians

 Gardner (multiple intelligences)  Bloom’s Taxonomy  De Bono’s six thinking hats  Constructivism – Piaget, Vygotsky (Zone of Proximal Development & social constructivist), Bruner  Freire Theoretical Frameworks

 Did you study Geography at school?  Do you think it should be made compulsory?  What has been your experience with teaching Geography so far?  What do you think about the new Geography curriculum? Focus Questions

Findings

 SOSE syllabuses are organised into complex structures of values, processes, strands and concepts, which do not adequately allow for a focus on geographical questions and their analysis. A concept-structured syllabus also makes it difficult to examine a geographical question from a variety of perspectives, using a variety of concepts, as is typically done in geographical inquiry. The experience of many teachers has been that the absorption of geography into SOSE has meant a loss of much of the content, rigour and skills taught when geography was a separate subject. They find that students taking up geography in the final years of high school are lacking much of the basic knowledge needed for that level of study (CIAG, 2007). The Importance of Teaching and Learning about Geography

 The perceived decline in the teaching of geography is most likely a product of several factors, some of which are related to curriculum structures, and some of which relate more generally to teaching and learning, school organisation and teacher professional development. A number of obstacles to the quality of teaching and learning of geography were identified in submissions to this study. These factors are summarised below. 1) Problems caused by amalgamation of geography into Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) As noted above, a primary concern for many stakeholders has been the loss of identity of geography in the primary school and early and middle years of high school through its amalgamated with other subjects into the learning area of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) in most states and territories. This, stakeholders believe, has lead to several problems. The Importance of Teaching and Learning about Geography

Activity

Findings

Feedback

Years 5 and 6 Approaches  spatial interaction  spatial analysis Years 7-10 Approaches  human agency  scalar  cultural/social constructivist Teaching Strategies

Learning Experiences

Year 5/6 Geographical skills  finding the way around countries and the world with small-scale maps  mapping land surfaces, human settlement and circulation  using maps to investigate locational and movement patterns  planning geographical inquiries  fieldwork  interviewing  using maps, photographs, statistics and literary sources  classifying and interpreting data  constructing climate graphs  using aerial photographs and satellite images to identify patterns  interpreting isopleth maps Skills and Concepts Major concepts  system  spatial distribution  culture  adaptation  perception  evaluation

Years 7-10 Geographical inquiry skills  measuring environmental, demographic, economic and social phenomena  using maps to develop and test generalisations  constructing and interpreting mental maps  constructing, interpreting and analysing choropleth maps  constructing, interpreting and analysing graphs and diagrams  statistical analysis  using computer mapping software to create statistical and other maps  interpreting simple remotely sensed images  understanding a GIS and its uses  evaluation of information  Reflection Skills and Concepts Major concepts scale behaviour risk power linear and non- linear change sustainability policy representation time–space compression agglomeration and dispersal

Geographical knowledge and understanding Years 5 and 6 Place  Understanding cultural differences between places and countries  Finding out how local community issues are managed  Exploring places in the world with similar characteristics to those of the students’ own place Environment  Investigating the local environment  Investigating a local environmental project  Investigating Australian and world climates and human adaptation to them  Studying an extreme environment  Learning about environmental hazards Space  Investigating how places are connected to each other  Finding out how retailing and transport produce spatial patterns of towns and commercial centres Knowledge and Understanding

Geographical knowledge and understanding: Year 7  Place  Investigating the population and community structure of the neighbourhood  Comparative analysis of the local place with other local-scale places  Environment  Investigating the environmental impact of housing and household consumption  Space  Investigating the places and spaces that students use  Investigating online spaces Knowledge and Understanding

Geographical knowledge and understanding: Years 8 and 9 Place  Comparative analysis of places and countries; deeper study of selected countries Environment  Understanding and explaining environmental systems and environmental change  Exploring the concepts of environment, nature and wilderness  Studying world biomes and their ecosystem health  Investigating environmental resources and human dependence on them  Exploring the perception and use of environmental resources  Undertaking an in-depth study of water and one or more other resource Space  Investigating topics such as sport, tourism, surfing, popular culture, food, retailing, crime, and cyberspace  Understanding the local economy  Explaining the distribution of employment  Identifying the effects of changing transport and communication technologies on local economies  Explaining population distribution and urban concentration  Explaining population mobility and its consequences Knowledge and Understanding

Geographical knowledge and understanding: Year 10 Place  Comparative analysis of places and countries; deeper study of selected countries Environment  Understanding and investigating environmental sustainability  Undertaking in-depth studies of one or more of climate change, urban environments, forests, land, and marine resources Space  Investigating migrant settlement  Explaining the spatial pattern of economic and social wellbeing, and its consequences Knowledge and Understanding

 Work, Employment and Enterprise  Difference and Diversity  Aboriginal and Indigenous history and culture  Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia  Creativity and thinking skills including higher order  Intercultural understanding  Self management and teamwork Cross-curricular Links  Literacy  Multicultural  Numeracy  ICT  Civics and citizenship  Environment  Sustainability  Social competence  Ethical behaviour

Assessment, both formative and summative, must be planned for so that the teacher can determine students’ preliminary knowledge, understanding and skills, keep track of students’ progress and report student achievement. Students receive feedback about what they have learnt, and what needs to be done to continue their learning from their teacher and from self and peer assessments. The complexity of assessment tasks gradually increase over time to allow students to develop evaluative independence as they assess their own knowledge, understanding and skills, and determine ways of improving their learning. Assessment for learning:  emphasises the interactions between learning and manageable assessment strategies that promote learning  clearly expresses for the student and teacher the goals of the learning activity  reflects a view of learning in which assessment helps students learn better, rather than just achieve a better mark  provides ways for students to use feedback from assessment  helps students take responsibility for their own learning  is inclusive of all learners Assessment

Geography is suited to the following types of assessment  Inquiry-based research assignments and projects  Fieldwork activities  Presentations  Peer assessment  Self-assessment Assessment

 Firstly, the geographical content of SOSE is often taught by teachers with no training in geography, and perhaps with no great enthusiasm for the subject. Members of the Council of the Institute of Australian Geographers (CIAG) in several states report that SOSE teachers in Years 8-10 are expected to teach across the disciplines of history, geography and economics, even though they may have studied only one of these subjects at university level. This is not conducive to good education” (CIAG, 2007). Importance of Pre-service Teacher Training

  pdf pdf  pdf pdf  port.pdf port.pdf  ducational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf ducational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf References