Geographical Concepts Archives

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Jamilah Sukimi

Geographical Concepts

Developing a Writing Framework to Guide Students’ Writing in Geography

Author/s:

Jamilah Sukimi (Meridian Secondary School (Singapore) ) Samantha Lim (Presbyterian High School (Singapore)) Sarifah Tamsir (Pasir Ris Secondary School (Singapore)) Tan Say Pin (New Town Secondary School (Singapore)) Wong Yi Jun (Riverside Secondary School (Singapore)) Keywords Geography Junior College Secondary School Geographical concepts Critical Thinking Geographical Writing Abstract This paper examines the effectiveness of using a Writing Framework to guide […]

Keywords
Geography
Junior College
Secondary School
Geographical concepts
Critical Thinking
Geographical Writing

Abstract
This paper examines the effectiveness of using a Writing Framework to guide students to write geographically for a level descriptor question. The Writing Framework combines aspects of Paul’s EOT (Wheel of Reasoning) with Neighbour’s Core Questions to guide students’ writing. The Writing Framework provides structure in extended writing, but more importantly encourages students to consider the importance of two geographical concepts, ‘Place’ and ‘Space’, in their essay writing.

The study involved 18 Secondary 5 Normal (Academic) students. The majority of the students found the Writing Framework useful and showed an improvement in test scores. The results and student feedback highlighted the potential of the Writing Framework to help students in writing geographically.

Introduction
The concepts of ‘space’ and ‘place’ are key to understanding geographical thinking. Lambert (Lambert, 2012, 3) defined ‘Place’ as a specific part of the Earth’s surface that has been named and given meaning by people, although its meanings may differ. Places range in size from the home and locality to a major world region. They can be natural (shaped by the environment) or built (constructed by human beings). On the other hand, ‘Space’ has its own purpose or use and is characterised by location (where something is located on the Earth’s surface), spatial distribution (pattern resulting from the arrangement of phenomena on the Earth’s surface) and spatial organisation (how phenomena are arranged on the Earth’s surface, and why). These key concepts provide valuable insights into the nature of Geography because of their breadth of application to the content studied and the extent to which they are linked to other significant ideas within the subject (Bennett, 2010, p. 38). They help to anchor the subject by giving it a greater coherence, and the students’ reference to these concepts in their answers would enhance the quality of geographical thinking in their essay.

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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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Index

Jamilah Sukimi

Authors List

Authors List

Developing a Writing Framework to Guide Students’ Writing in Geography

Concepts as the Grammar of Geography: A Reflection

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

HSSE Online

HSSE Online