Volume 4, Issue 1 2015 Archives

Index

Zainab Banu Hassan

Volume 4, Issue 1 2015

Improving Geographical Thinking in the Classroom with the Curriculum Making Model

Author/s:

Zainab Banu Hassan (River Valley High School, Singapore) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Curriculum Making Artefact Thinking Geographically Introduction This paper examines and evaluates a curriculum artefact that could be used in teaching about food aid as a strategy to alleviate the problem of food shortage in the Secondary Four human geography chapter on Food […]

Zainab Banu Hassan (River Valley High School, Singapore)

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Curriculum Making
Artefact
Thinking Geographically

Introduction
This paper examines and evaluates a curriculum artefact that could be used in teaching about food aid as a strategy to alleviate the problem of food shortage in the Secondary Four human geography chapter on Food Resources. This paper discusses the Curriculum Making model introduced by the Geographical Association (2012) as its main curriculum theory to evaluate the chosen artefact. It evaluates the role of the teacher as a curriculum maker and the curriculum artefact’s effectiveness in allowing the students to think geographically. In doing so, it critically evaluates the geography that is being taught and learnt in the classroom.

In recent years there have been many concerns raised by academic geographers on the teaching and learning of geography in United Kingdom (UK) as a subject in school and the role of teachers in teaching it. Many debates have risen over the geography being learnt in the classroom with the revision of the National Curriculum in UK in 2008 (Lambert & Morgan, 2009).

On a curriculum level, there have been arguments put forward to transform the current UK school geography curriculum into a knowledge-based curriculum (Young, 2010), where careful attention is given to the selection of geography content to be taught in the classrooms to connect it closer to the subject discipline (Lambert & Morgan, 2009), to allow students to study geography holistically (Rawding, 2013) and not through a selection of content or concepts which are incoherent. Besides the content, there has been a greater emphasis on the student learner. Proposals have been made to include students’ everyday lived experiences and interests into subject content to make it more meaningful and relevant for them and to help them connect larger global issues with local ones (Brooks, 2006; Biddulph, 2013). Roberts (2014) has also asserted the need to equip young people with the necessary thinking skills and values that will allow them to access the content knowledge and to make it meaningful for them.

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Concepts as the Grammar of Geography: A Reflection

Author/s:

Liu Zhen

Liu Zhen (Loyang Secondary School, Singapore) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Geographical concepts Teaching Geography Thinking Geographically Within geography education, there is discussion about what it means to “think geographically” (Jackson, 2006). One argument is that geographical content (the lists of names and places) is the “vocabulary” of geography, and geographical concepts are the ”grammar” […]

Liu Zhen (Loyang Secondary School, Singapore)

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Geographical concepts
Teaching Geography

Thinking Geographically
Within geography education, there is discussion about what it means to “think geographically” (Jackson, 2006). One argument is that geographical content (the lists of names and places) is the “vocabulary” of geography, and geographical concepts are the ”grammar” which helps us makes sense of places and names (Jackson, 2006; Lambert, 2004). Jackson argues that what sets geographers apart from other professions is their ability to make connections between information and knowledge about seemingly unrelated matters (Jackson P. , 2006, p. 203), but expressed concern that the public perception of the discipline focuses only on the “vocabulary” aspect (Jackson P. , 2006).

Jackson is not alone in stating that the study of Geography should not be purely about making lists and remembering names. Bonnet (2012) sees the taxonomy of Geography – using geography to “order the world” – as one of the existential functions of Geography (Bonnet, 2012, p. 40). Advocates of holistic geography (Rawding, 2013) support Jackson’s argument that geography students need to move beyond studying geography topics in isolation. They argue that students need to see the interconnection between different systems (Bonnet, 2012; Lambert, 2004; Rawding, 2013), that is they need to think geographically. Holistic geography poses a stark contrast to the topical approach typically employed in schools, where the textbook is divided distinctly first into human and physical geography, then separate topics such plate tectonics or weather and climate.

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Radicalization of Geographical Education in Singapore through Powerful Knowledge and Powerful Pedagogy

Author/s:

Paul Seah

Paul Seah (Beatty Secondary School, Singapore) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Geographical Concepts Introduction Johnston and Sidaway (2004) posit that there exists a body of knowledge that is taught by experts who produce new knowledge and reproduce old knowledge within disciplines that is identified by their subject matter. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant classified this […]

Paul Seah (Beatty Secondary School, Singapore)

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Geographical Concepts

Introduction
Johnston and Sidaway (2004) posit that there exists a body of knowledge that is taught by experts who produce new knowledge and reproduce old knowledge within disciplines that is identified by their subject matter. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant classified this knowledge in three different ways (Azócar Fernández & Buchroithner, 2014). One way was to classify facts according to the type of the objects studied. The second way was to examine the temporal dimension by looking at things in relation to their history. The final way was to understand facts relative to their spatial relationships. It is the final method of knowledge classification that is what we know today as geography.

The understanding of knowledge, as with other phenomena in our society, is “ever-changing and is multifaceted” (Boettke, 2002, p. 266). More recently, Firth (2013) proposed three other conceptions of knowledge: absolutist, relativist and realist, and argues that such “different conceptions of knowledge (and truth) imply and encourage different ideals of thinking, learning, teaching and curriculum in geography” (p. 59).

However it seems that knowledge is “somehow taken for granted or something we can make fit our political goals” (Young, 2010, p. 21) and that there is a need for another way of conceptualizing the curriculum by seeing what knowledge can do, calling it “powerful knowledge” (Young, 2009). He argues that because the curriculum had evolved to tackle social problems and fulfill the needs and interests of learners, it “played down the fundamental educational role of the curriculum, which derives both from what schools are for and what they can and cannot do” (Young, 2010, p. 23). Young (2010) therefore takes a radical stand and argues that “we need to make the question of knowledge our central concern and this involves developing a knowledge-led and subject-led, and not, as much current orthodoxy assumes, a learner-led approach to the curriculum” (p. 21). This paper will critically examine Young’s (2010) arguments and comment on how these arguments are relevant to geographical education in Singapore.

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The “rightful place” of Physical Geography in Singapore’s School Geography Curriculum

Author/s:

Ng Mui Leng

Ng Mui Leng (Dunman High School, Singapore) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Physical Geography Education Citizenship Education When the new Lower Secondary Geography Syllabus was launched in 2014, there was much talk among teachers that there seemed to be a downplaying of “pure” physical geography topics. Units on the traditional four spheres of physical geography […]

Ng Mui Leng (Dunman High School, Singapore)

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Physical Geography Education
Citizenship Education

When the new Lower Secondary Geography Syllabus was launched in 2014, there was much talk among teachers that there seemed to be a downplaying of “pure” physical geography topics. Units on the traditional four spheres of physical geography (i.e. biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere) were taken out, though physical geography topics are still represented at the upper secondary level. This leads us, as geography educators, to ponder – is physical geography’s position in Singapore’s school geography curriculum at risk?

This paper draws on Duncan Hawley’s chapter “What is the rightful place of physical geography?” in Debates in Geography Education (Lambert & Jones, 2013). It appositely explores the “rightful place of physical geography” by presenting the different arguments about physical geography’s position with regard to other disciplines (especially the sciences) and within the discipline itself. It also critically reflects on the implications of Hawley’s arguments on the teaching and learning of geography in the Singapore context.

Earth Science – Geography or Science?
With the use of Earth science as an example, Hawley (2013) presents the various viewpoints on the debate of whether Earth science should be positioned in the geography or science curriculum. Physical geography topics such as climatology and weather, geology and ecosystems, which can be collectively known as Earth science, often overlap in content with the sciences (biology, chemistry and physics), leading to academics like Gregory (2002, cited in Hawley, 2013, p. 90) to question the appropriateness of physical geography within geography. Hawley also acknowledges King’s argument (2011) that Earth science’s “rightful place” in education should be in the science curriculum as international test data has shown that students in countries where Earth science is an established science subject taught by teachers who specialise in Earth science, performed much better than the students who are from countries where “Earth science is not so strongly demarcated” (cited in Hawley, 2013 p. 91).

For this part of the debate on physical geography’s position with regard to the sciences, Hawley concurs with the complementary approach to understanding the physical aspects of the Earth, as advocated by the Geographical Association (2013, p. 91). He draws on the Geographical Association’s justification of how the “commonalities of earth science in physical geography and ‘deep’ earth science do not duplicate learning but are complementary, and both perspectives are advantageous and essential for effective learning” (Hawley, 2013 p. 92). Though Hawley (2103) does not openly state his stand, he seems to be supportive of this approach as he argues that it differentiates itself from the “conventional sciences” and is less generic than the usual Earth System science (p. 92).

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Negotiating the Role of the (Beginning) Teacher in the Classroom

Author/s:

Peh Shi Yun

Peh Shi Yun (Innova Junior College, Singapore) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Teachers’ Geographical Knowledge Teachers’ Practice Cultures Of Influence Introduction What is the role of the geography teacher in the classroom today? This is a complex question that has surfaced as a result of the recent (and upcoming) changes to the Singapore geography curriculum […]

Peh Shi Yun (Innova Junior College, Singapore)

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Teachers’ Geographical Knowledge
Teachers’ Practice
Cultures Of Influence

Introduction
What is the role of the geography teacher in the classroom today? This is a complex question that has surfaced as a result of the recent (and upcoming) changes to the Singapore geography curriculum both at secondary and tertiary level. But perhaps the more important questions we should be asking are those that Brooks (2006) attempts to evaluate in her paper on Geography teachers and the making the school geography curriculum. She examined the “sort of geographical knowledges (that) trainee teachers are recreating in their classrooms” and questioned the “geographical knowledge the students may actually understand” (p. 75). Therefore, this paper attempts to review her paper by briefly outlining the main arguments and supporting evidence in Brooks’ (2006) paper whilst critically reflecting on its implications for teaching and learning geography in the Singapore context.

Argument 1: The Importance of (Accurate) Subject Knowledge Representation to Students
The first major argument in Brooks’ (2006) paper is how geography teachers influence the students’ takeaway of what school geography is by acting as a “mediator of geographical knowledge and a maker of the curriculum” (p. 77). She uses her lesson observations of 3 trainee teachers to bring out this complex role of the teachers in recreating geographical knowledges in the classroom. For example, through the study of the first trainee teacher’s lesson on solving acid rain, she noted how the study of acid rain had been simplified to a mere problem that could be solved using scientific means. She argued that the geographical aspect of the lesson was lost since the link between the “borderless nature of acid rain and its consequences in terms of the difficulty of establishing legislation and preventive measures” (Brooks, 2006, p. 78) across different countries due to differing political agendas was not brought out during the lesson. Hence, in presenting the issue of acid rain to students in this simplistic problem-solving manner, the geography teacher had mediated (or to put it in a more direct manner for this case study, restricted) the students’ understanding, both of the complexity of the issue of acid rain and the geographical nature of the problem. Brooks (2006) even went as far as to say that the “geography teacher has failed to teach them geography” (p. 83) if solving the issue of acid rain as a problem was all they took away from the lesson. This style of evaluating the geographical aspects (or lack thereof) in the lesson was similar across all 3 case studies presented in her paper. This was then used to illustrate how the geography teacher plays an important role in mediating the geographical knowledges of the students and even with the right materials, subject knowledge and pedagogical skills are required to effectively tease out the (accurate) geographical knowledge for the students.

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Disaster prevention literacies: Assessing the knowledge, skills and attitude of Taiwanese students for an earthquake disaster

Author/s:

Norfarahin Binte Abdul Rahim

Norfarahin Binte Abdul Rahim (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Bing Sheng Wu (National Institute of Education, Singapore) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Physical Geography Education Introduction Earthquakes can have significant and catastrophic consequences to populations and the areas where they live and work. One way to mitigate the negative effect of the hazard on lives is […]

Norfarahin Binte Abdul Rahim (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Bing Sheng Wu (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Physical Geography Education

Introduction
Earthquakes can have significant and catastrophic consequences to populations and the areas where they live and work. One way to mitigate the negative effect of the hazard on lives is by building the preparedness of people in at-risk areas (Panić, Kovačević, Miljanović, 2012). However, the level of preparedness for earthquakes in not only developing but also developed countries is still problematic (Shaw, Shiwaku, & Kobayashi, 2004). Traditional approaches such as lecturing or book-reading about natural disasters rarely equip students with the skills and attitude of preparedness to respond effectively and survive future disasters (Panić, Kovačević, Miljanović, 2012). Effective education is especially important for earthquake-prone countries to reduce the vulnerability to death when a disaster strikes (Chang & Lin, 2012).

Ranked by the World Bank as the fifth highest risk country in the world in terms of full-spectrum disaster risk, the social, economic and geologic environment of Taiwan is highly volatile to the real threat of earthquakes (Lai, Lei, Fang, Chen, & Chen, 2012). The destructive impact of the 921 earthquake in 1999 led to 2415 people killed, 11305 injured, and monetary damage that totalled $300 billion (Seplaki, Goldman, Weinstein, & Lin, 2006). The 921 earthquake along with the recognition that earthquakes have been occurring so frequently in Taiwan has motivated the Ministry of Education (MOE) to revamp its definition of what the achievement of disaster prevention literacy should encompass. Instead of teaching earthquake prevention through textbooks, Taiwan’s educational effort focused on the development of skills to act and respond appropriately during natural disaster and attitudes to improve people’s preparedness for disaster in the future (Chen & Lee, 2012). Disaster education in Taiwan now begins in elementary school (Sharpe, 2009). Once taught to students through mere theories in the school curricula, this crucial component has been infused into experiential learning processes which put drills at the centre of the learning cycle (Sharpe, 2009). In addition, all schools are required by MOE to conduct mandatory drills at least once in a semester (Chang & Lin, 2012). This ensures that all students are equipped with the skills needed to respond to an upcoming earthquake disaster, should it occur on school grounds.

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Impacts of the development of tourist facilities on the transition of villages: A case study of Gubugklakah Village, Malang, Indonesia

Author/s:

Adelina Chandra

Adelina Chandra (Department of Geography, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia) Diah Rossy Pratiwi (Department of Geography, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia) Noer Sulistyarini (Department of Geography, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Spatial analysis; tourist facilities; tourism village; transition INTRODUCTION Tourism villages in rural areas that offer unique tourist attractions such as physical features of the natural environment or […]

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Spatial analysis; tourist facilities; tourism village; transition

INTRODUCTION
Tourism villages in rural areas that offer unique tourist attractions such as physical features of the natural environment or social and cultural activities in rural communities can support economic development (Department of Culture and Tourism of Malang, 2006). Tourism villages are also a form of integration between attractions, accommodation and support facilities that integrates community life with traditions (Nuryanti, 1993). As a result, the development of tourist facilities should be a key factor in forming a tourism village and should be easily accessed by visitors. Two types of facilities which should be considered in the tourism village: primary and supporting facilities (Burton, 1995). The primary facilities are the main construction of tourist attractions while the supporting facilities represent the secondary facilities and conditional facilities. The secondary facilities are facilities that serve tourist’s needs, such as accommodation, restaurants and shopping centres. The conditional facilities consist of infrastucture and public transportation. In the supporting facilities, accommodation is a key consideration for tourists (Inskeep, 1991). When tourists stay in certain areas, it is important to experience local people’s daily lives and their physical environment if an accommodation package is well planned. It will also help tourists have a better understanding of the culture in the tourism village, which integrate attractions, accommodations, and support facilities in a local life’s structure (Nuryanti, Wiendu, 1993).

Gubugklakah village, located in the eastern of Malang, Indonesia, is famous for its abundant natural resources and a wide variety of vegetables. It is also well-known for tourist attractions such as Coban Pelangi Waterfall, Apple Agrotourism, and Ndayung Adventure along the main road to the tourist center of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. To enrich the tourist activities along the main road to the tourist sites of Bromo Tengger Semeru Park, Lembaga Desa Wisata (LADESTA), there has been an initiative to develop tourist facilities to help Gubugklakah transfer its status from a traditional village to a tourism village. The purpose of this change is to increase local participation and develop a friendly village for tourists. This initiative was approved by the local government in 2011. In terms of the initiative, there have been significant changes in the landscape of Gubugklakah. More houses have been converted to homestays to make tourists feel the real life of the local community. Residential development located on the main street of Bromo Tengger Semeru also has undergone dramatic changes due to the spatial restructuring in this region. As a result, this study will focus on the spatial-temporal changes of Gubuglakah village and explore how the development of tourist facilities changed the status of Gubugklakah.

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Index

Zainab Banu Hassan

Authors List

Authors List

Improving Geographical Thinking in the Classroom with the Curriculum Making Model

Concepts as the Grammar of Geography: A Reflection

Radicalization of Geographical Education in Singapore through Powerful Knowledge and Powerful Pedagogy

The “rightful place” of Physical Geography in Singapore’s School Geography Curriculum

Negotiating the Role of the (Beginning) Teacher in the Classroom

Disaster prevention literacies: Assessing the knowledge, skills and attitude of Taiwanese students for an earthquake disaster

Impacts of the development of tourist facilities on the transition of villages: A case study of Gubugklakah Village, Malang, Indonesia

HSSE Online

HSSE Online