mageoged.webs

1. www.mageoged.webs.com

2. Progress(ion) in Geography David Lambert Professor of Geography Education Institute of Education London

3. 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 Education Michael Gove (2010-present)

4. 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

5. 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)

6. Successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve Confident individuals who are able to lead safe, healthy and fulfilling lives Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society Skills eg literacy, numeracy, ICT, personal, learning and thinking skills Knowledge and understanding eg big ideas that shape the world Attitudes and attributes eg determined, adaptable, confident, risk-taking, enterprising Lessons Locations Environment Events Routines Extended hours Out of school A range of approaches eg enquiry, active learning, practical and constructive In tune with human development Matching time to learning need eg deep, immersive and regular frequent learning Opportunities for spiritual, moral, social, cultural, emotional, intellectual and physical development Using a range of audience and purpose Including all learners with opportunities for learner choice and personalisation Building on learning beyond the school including community and business links Communication, language and literacy Creative development Knowledge and understanding of the world Mathematical development Personal, social and emotional development Physical development A & D Ci D & T En Ge Hi ICT Ma MFL Mu PE PSHE PW EW+FC RE SC Promotes a broad and engaging curriculum Maximises pupils’ progress Helps identify clear targets for improvement Links to national standards which are consistently interpreted Uses tests and tasks appropriately Embraces peer- and self-assessment Draws on a wide range of evidence of pupils’ learning Gives helpful feedback for the learner and other stakeholders Informs future planning and teaching Is integral to effective teaching and learning Civic participation Healthy lifestyle choices Further involvement in education, employment or training Attainment and improved standards Behaviour and attendance National Curriculum ‘Big Picture’ [QCDA 2007] Three key questions 1 What are we trying to achieve? The curriculum aims to enable all young people to become Curriculum aims Be healthy Stay safe Enjoy and achieve Make a positive contribution Achieve economic wellbeing Every Child Matters outcomes Focus for learning 2 How do we organise learning? The curriculum as an entire planned learning experience underpinned by a broad set of common values and purposes Components Learning approaches 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. Whole curriculum dimensions Statutory expectations 3 How well are we achieving our aims? To make learning and teaching more effective so that learners understand quality and how to improve Assessment fit for purpose To secure Accountability measures

7. Some Questions • Is 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?

8. 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? • Contents • The subject resource • Thinking geographically • Living geography • Exploration and enquiry • Real world fieldwork • Young people’s geographies • Curriculum Making animoto_video short.mp4

9. Geographical Association: ‘making geography happen’ Good quality ‘curriculum Making’ Based on pupils’ work Attempting to show progression Part of The Action Plan for Geography 2009-11

10. 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 and applied practical skills www.geography.org.uk/getinvolved/NCconsultation

11. The Geographical Association • “Thinking Geographically” • National Curriculum proposals 2012 • 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

12. Back to basics!(that is, the fundamental question) • 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

13. 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)

14. 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 and its 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!

15. Catching our breath • 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?

16. “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)

17. 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 the ‘yet-to-be-thought’.

18. 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’ and the ‘yet-to-be-thought’)

19. What kind of (curriculum) Future 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)

20. White Paper: The Importance of Teaching .... and ‘core knowledge’ ‘The National Curriculum should set out clearly the core knowledgeand understanding that all children should be expected to acquire in the course of their schooling. (para 4.7) Does this imply F1?

21. White Paper: The Importance of Teaching .... and ‘core knowledge’ ‘The National Curriculum should set out clearly the core knowledgeand understanding that all children should be expected to acquire in the course of their schooling. (para 4.7) Does this imply F1? Or F3?

22. 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”.

23. Towards a new era of localisedcurriculum making?

24. Curriculum Making Which learning activity ? Does this take the learner beyond what they already know ? Student Experiences Teacher Choices Geography: the discipline Underpinned by Key Concepts Thinking Geographically www.geography.org.uk/cpdevents/curriculummaking

25. The moral implications • of teaching geography Some questions: • What do children learn (anyhow) through day to day experience? • What do the children need to be exposed to in geography lessons? • In what ways is learning geography in school an educational achievement? • How does it enable students: eg to travel ‘with a different view’?

26. 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 1Continuity 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?

27. 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 2Breadth, 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?