The use of Instrumental Enrichment as a method to teach the analysis of the population pyramid to Grade 7 Geography students.

Abstract

Action research was conducted to improve the teaching of the analysis of the population pyramid to Grade 7 female Geography students. Instrumental Enrichment was selected as a tool to teach the analysis of the population pyramid. Firstly, the concept of a population pyramid was introduced and taught using an existing teaching method and a baseline assessment was conducted. Instrumental Enrichment was then introduced, and students used the tool to analyse four population pyramids. A concluding assessment measured the improvement in students’ ability to analyse the population pyramid. The use of Instrumental Enrichment did enhance the students’ understanding of the population pyramid. However, they were not able to use it consistently and independently. This agrees with Willingham (2009) that students remember what they think about and the findings of Bellaera (2017) and Adams (1991) that students are not able to develop critical thinking purely by interacting with the subject matter. A refinement of Instrumental Enrichment was proposed considering these principles.