Geography textbook tasks fostering thinking skills for the acquisition of powerful knowledge

Abstract

Tasks are essential in fostering students' learning processes, and thinking skills are considered to be of central importance to learning. In order to analyse how tasks promote the development of thinking skills in school geography, we need an instrument that looks beyond a simple distinction between lower and higher order thinking. It should be able to identify types of tasks based on distinctive elements on the way to acquiring powerful knowledge or knowledge of high epistemic quality. In this paper, we describe the development of an instrument based on the adaptation of existing categorisations and the use of Bernstein's recognition and realisation rules. The instrument distinguishes five levels of thinking: lower order thinking, use of thinking strategies, parts of higher order thinking, higher order thinking, and reflection. The instrument was employed to analyse tasks in geography textbooks used in the Netherlands and the German State North Rhine-Westphalia, with researchers and teacher educators in both states considering its efficacy both plausible and practicable. The results show that the instrument is sufficiently sensitive to identify differences in types of tasks and the extent to which access to powerful knowledge is fostered.

Curriculum contexts, recontextualisation and attention for higher-order thinking

“…Whereas the Dutch curriculum emphasises the use of thinking skills, that is, the acquisition of systematic knowledge, in the NRW curriculum nearly half of the goals refer to (parts of) higher-order thinking. Here, more emphasis is given to knowledge and language to participate in societal debates, and to the origins and limitations of knowledge, which are both important aspects of powerful knowledge (Krause et al, 2021a).…”

“…In accordance with Rosenlund (2019), who studied the discourse of the Swedish history curriculum and emphasised the need for level descriptors, we used the Geography Task Classification Framework (Krause et al, 2021a) to analyse curriculum aims and the high-stakes examinations of 2017 and 2018. This instrument considers recognition as well as realisation rules, and it makes it possible to identify how tasks contribute to the five aspects of powerful knowledge: factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, systematic knowledge, knowledge and language of societal debates, and knowledge of knowledge (Béneker, 2018).…”

“…Teachers in the Netherlands are free to sequence and pace the school curriculum, for they are given leeway in the development of skills that are not assessed in the high-stakes examination, such as research skills. However, teachers experience time (Krause et al, 2021a).…”

“…In the Netherlands, the school inspectorate monitors whether the average results for the high-stakes examination (2017,2018); NRW tasks derive from Koch and Böker (2018). The categorisation is based on the answer models by using the Geography Task Classification Framework (Krause et al, 2021a).…”

“…However, research shows that tasks addressing higher-order thinking -in other words, aiming at powerful knowledge -are limited in geography textbooks and lessons (Jo and Bednarz, 2009;Krause et al, 2017). Furthermore, a recent analysis of tasks in geography textbooks for upper secondary education revealed that tasks in Dutch textbooks focus more on the development of systematic knowledge, whereas in textbooks in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany, higher-order thinking tasks are more numerous (Krause et al, 2021a). This raises the question of the recontextualisation of the discipline of geography in both curriculum contexts, as the differences in textbook tasks suggest differences in access to higher-order thinking, and therefore in the nature of the subject.…”