Geography's secret powers to save the world

Bednarz, Sarah Witham

doi:10.1111/cag.12539

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Sandra Bednarz (2019) wants nothing more than for geographic educators to "Save the World" and in a presentation to the 2018 joint Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) and IGU Regional Conference, she suggested that Geographers have three unique "secret geographic powers" that enable them to help students save the world through Geography by developing a sense of self, civic consciousness, and social responsibility (p.2). By "secret" Bednarz (2019) means that Geography teachers routinely use three distinct, but equally powerful, ways of thinking that differentiate Geography from other disciplines. This methodology is considered secret because they do not advertise it to school administration, and it is not recognized or understood by the public (Bednarz, 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By "secret" Bednarz (2019) means that Geography teachers routinely use three distinct, but equally powerful, ways of thinking that differentiate Geography from other disciplines. This methodology is considered secret because they do not advertise it to school administration, and it is not recognized or understood by the public (Bednarz, 2019). These secret powers include: Spatial Thinking, using maps, graphs, and diagrams to visualize and interpret data about space; Geographic Thinking, using geography and observation to reason out or understand spatial effects and the processes that produce them; and Geo-spatial Thinking, applying spatial thinking using geospatial technologies (Bednarz, 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The death of Geography: an analysis of spatial patterns of geographic education in Ontario

Ginou

2023

Preprint

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<p>In Ontario geography teachers have discussed the decline in the popularity of geography classes for years. If that is the case, then students are losing access to a set of skills and knowledge that are fundamental to solving today’s global issues. If we can determine if and where geography programmes are failing in Ontario, we can target those areas with the limited resources at our disposal. Student enrollment data from the Ontario Ministry of Education in Canada was used to determine the percentage of students in each Ontario high school that were taking elective Geography courses. The ratio was geovisualized by provincial Forward Sortation Areas and it was determined that there is a decrease in the number of students taking these courses between the school years of 2011/2012- 2015/2016 and an increase in the number of schools offering no senior geography courses at all. There was also a generalized pattern of very low ratios in urban areas compared to rural Forward Sortation Areas. It is likely that numerous and complex factors are involved in creating these patterns (socioeconomic, political policy, racial divides, etc.). It is recommended that Geography teachers rebrand the subject of high school Geography as a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) oriented subject by highlighting the application of GIS in their courses. Geography would then appeal to students</p> <p>and parents as a vocational pathway. Additionally, teachers could use government STEM based funding to enhance teacher training and develop other resources to further the programme’s popularity.</p>

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The death of Geography: an analysis of spatial patterns of geographic education in Ontario

Ginou

2023

Preprint

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“…Uhlenwinkel et al 2017). In my understanding, geography has the ability to teach values that are important in helping students to appreciate the diverse and complex world around them, where everyone has the opportunity to take a stance and actively participate (see also Bednarz 2019).…”

Section: Geographical Thinking Skills and Knowledge Types Emphasized ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When we talk about geography education, it is important to consider value-based aims (see e.g. Bednarz 2019;Uhlenwinkel et al 2017). This thesis aimed to increase our theoretical understanding by differentiating and adding a sixth knowledge type to Maude's typology, because it found that geography teachers teach geographical knowledge that engages students to learn in relation to the broader educational aims of schooling (see Table 8, column 1).…”

Section: :1mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, I suggest that the achievement of value-based aims requires the use of all of the thinking skills and knowledge dimensions as well as all levels of powerful geographical knowledge. Nonetheless, I have wanted to emphasize value-based issues in the framework as a separate knowledge type, because they reflect geography's ability to engage students to appreciate the diverse and complex world around them and participate actively in society (see also Bednarz 2019). Value-based issues include cross-curricular themes in the curriculum as well as value-based content, i.e.…”

Section: :1mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geography's ability to enhance powerful thinking skills and knowledge

Virranmäki

2022

NGP

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Finnish upper secondary geography education has faced major changes within the last decade. In 2014, geography lost one of its compulsory courses in the distribution of lesson hours. Afterward, curriculum reforms were conducted in 2015 and 2019, and the geography test in the Finnish matriculation examination was digitalized in 2016. Similar major changes have occurred across the globe over the last 20 years as geography’s position in schools has weakened. Therefore, geography educationists have engaged in discussion regarding the kinds of knowledge and thinking skills that geography encourages young people to learn during their years in school. This thesis acknowledges that geography involves much more than teaching and learning simple facts about world’s topography, regions, and places, which is how geography is usually understood in popular views. The aim of this thesis is to widen our understanding of thinking skills and powerful knowledge in the context of geography education. Theoretically, the thesis brings together discussions of powerful geographical knowledge with thinking skills and knowledge dimensions from a revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy, and it suggests that these can be used as two “lenses” through which to examine geography. The main objective of the thesis is to examine geography’s potential to engage students in thinking skills and powerful geographical knowledge, using Finnish upper secondary geography education as an example. This thesis is based on three individual research articles, and thus the empirical part of the thesis consists of multiple research materials: in-service upper secondary teachers’ concept maps and in-depth interviews; the geography test questions from the paper-based and digital forms of the Finnish matriculation examination between fall 2013 and spring 2019; students’ answers to the paper-based and digital geography test questions between fall 2015 and spring 2017; and learning objectives in upper secondary geography curricula documents from the years 2003, 2015, and 2019, which are examined through the qualitative research methodology approach. Both inductive and deductive content analysis are used as methods of analysis. Additionally, quantification, descriptive statistics, and statistical analyses are used to comprehensively understand the researched phenomenon. In this compilation part of the thesis, the findings from the three original research articles are examined through the two “lenses” to reveal which geographical thinking skills and knowledge are emphasized. The findings suggest that the various thinking skills and knowledge dimensions, as well as powerful geographical knowledge types, are all present to some extent in Finnish geography’s learning objectives and test questions, students’ answers, and teachers’ conceptions. However, the majority of the learning objectives and test questions emphasize lower-order thinking skills, i.e. powerful geographical knowledge types 2 and 5. However, to some extent, teachers additionally emphasize higher-order thinking skills, i.e. powerful geographical knowledge types 1 and 4. The digitalization of the matriculation examination and the curriculum reforms slightly shifted the emphasis toward higher order thinking because the requirement to use analytical thinking skills—i.e. powerful geographical knowledge type 4—increased. Additionally, the findings suggest that students have difficulty answering questions that require them to use analytical (in digital tests only), evaluative, and creative thinking or procedural knowledge, i.e. powerful geographical knowledge types 4, 3, and 1. The findings indicate that geography has the potential to enhance students’ higher-order thinking skills and engage them in powerful geographical knowledge, but further development is needed. First, there is a need to reevaluate the optimal distribution between lower- and higher-order thinking skills in the geography curriculum’s learning objectives and the geography test questions in the Finnish matriculation examination. Additionally, there is a need to engage geography teachers and students in reflection on thinking skills and powerful geographical knowledge. Moreover, there is a need to consider the possibility of placing more emphasis on higher-order thinking skills, because this will enable the development of students’ powerful geographical knowledge in greater depth. In conclusion, this thesis provides one perspective on geography education and presents one framework for understanding thinking skills and powerful knowledge in geography. This framework can be used to plan the aims of geography education, or to choose teaching artifacts, methods, or assessments tasks. Moreover, it can be applied in order to “speak the same language” so as to develop geography education, and above all to develop students’ powerful geographical knowledge and thinking skills. Keywords revised Bloom’s taxonomy, powerful geographical knowledge, upper secondary education, geography education, geography curriculum, learning objectives, summative assessment, teachers’ conceptions, students’ performance, higher-order thinking skills

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Implications of the Anthropocene for Professional Ethics in American Geography Education

Larsen

Harrington²

2022

Geography Teacher Education and Professionalization

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Geography's secret powers to save the world

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

The death of Geography: an analysis of spatial patterns of geographic education in Ontario

The death of Geography: an analysis of spatial patterns of geographic education in Ontario

Geography's ability to enhance powerful thinking skills and knowledge

Implications of the Anthropocene for Professional Ethics in American Geography Education

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