Planning to teach geography K–10

Photo of children walking in a line holding mirrors in front of their face to view the canopy above — A mirror walk observing the rainforest canopy, Cascade EEC

The deliverable for this course is an implementation plan for one focus area of the Geography K–10 Syllabus.

This section will assist you in completing your implementation plan. For each content heading in your focus area, you will need to complete the following columns:

Case study
Inquiry question(s)
Learning experiences
Tools (K–6) or Tools/Skills/Concepts (7–10)
When.

Note: The geography K–10 teaching and learning frameworks downloaded in the previous section may be of considerable assistance in creating your implementation plan. Participants are encouraged to refer to the relevant framework(s) when completing each column.

Download the Geography K–10 planning template (.docx 164kB) if you haven’t already. This document contains templates for all fifteen focus areas in the Geography K–10 Syllabus. It does not include learning across the curriculum icons.

Print out an A3 copy of the template for your chosen focus area. Hint: The document is in A4, so scale the printing to A3.

Photo of urban landscape in Shanghai showing decaying buildings surrounded by high rise apartments — Urban demolition and renewal, Shanghai, China

The content in each focus area is taught through a series of inquiries using the geographical inquiry process. The organisation of content into inquiries is done concurrently with choosing case studies.

Each content heading will usually necessitate its own inquiry and case study. A few observations:

Units of learning may include more than one inquiry. The teaching and learning frameworks, for example, contain up to four inquiries.
Each inquiry will usually involve at least one case study.
Case studies need to be contemporary and relevant to students.
The starting point is:
one content heading = one inquiry = one case study
The planning template layout reflects this assumption. In practice, it will be more complicated. Content headings can be split or combined, and inquiries may require more than one case study (for example, if two settings are being compared).

Choosing case studies

Contemporary case studies need to be selected that allow students to engage in geographical inquiries to cover the syllabus content.

Example Box 1

The Stage 1 focus area Features of Places has three content headings. The third contains the following:


Content heading	Content
How places are organised	Students: investigate activities that occur within places, for example: (ACHGK007, ACHGK008) discussion of why and how the spaces within places can be rearranged for different purposes eg. street fair, school hall VR examination of why various activities in an area are located where they are eg. School, shops M F

As suggested in the content itself, a Stage 1 class might undertake an inquiry using their local school environment as the case study. Alternatively, a local recreation area may provide a suitable case study.

Example Box 2

The first content heading for the Stage 3 focus area Factors that Shape Places states the following:


Content heading	Content
Factors that change environments	Students: investigate the ways people change the natural environment in Australia and another country, for example: (ACHGK026, ACHGK027) examination of how people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, have influenced each country’s environmental characteristics eg land clearing

This content heading clearly requires two case studies, one in Australia and one in another country. These two case studies can be paired within one inquiry. Alternatively, each case study may be treated as a separate inquiry.

Example Box 3

The first content heading for the Stage 4 focus area Landscapes and Landforms states the following:


Content heading	Content
Landscapes and landforms	Students: investigate different landscapes and the geomorphic processes that create distinctive landforms, for example: (ACHGK048, ACHGK050) identification of a variety of landscapes and landforms M VR explanation of geomorphic processes that create landforms eg weathering, erosion, deposition, tectonic activity VR examination of ONE landscape and its distinctive landforms F

This content heading requires multiple case studies to allow students to investigate a variety of landscapes, landforms and geomorphic processes. Where possible, case studies should reflect the local school context.

Deliverable task a: Case studies

Each row on your implementation template addresses a content heading from your focus area. Complete the case study column for each row. You may divide content into inquiries as required. What is important is that the case studies chosen:

are contemporary
are relevant to your students
foster geographical thinking
address syllabus content to achieve stage outcomes.

Aboriginal rock art — Aboriginal art in the Kimberley, Western Australia

Thinking geographically involves asking geographical questions. Well-framed questions lead to better learning.

Geographical questions lead students to investigate the geographical issues in the case study. The geographical inquiry process is driven by a series of geographical questions.

True geographical inquiries allow gathered data and information to inform and modify the questions being asked.

Older students may be encouraged to form inquiry questions as the geographical inquiry progresses.

For many student groups, teachers will need to present, or lead students towards, pre-formulated questions at the outset of the geographical inquiry process.

Formulating geographical inquiry questions

Responding with action

Deliverable task b: Inquiry questions

Fill in the inquiry question(s) column on your implementation template for each of the inquiries and associated case studies being planned. You may need to make some modifications to the layout if you have divided or joined content headings.

Formulate a main inquiry question for each inquiry.

You may also like to record any additional questions that you feel may help facilitate the inquiry process. Questions in the teaching and learning frameworks may assist.

Photo of children using ipad to film or photograph a pond. — Recording observations using digital technology, Field of Mars EEC

The geographical inquiry process begins with students acquiring geographical data and information.

While instructing students to ‘Just Google it!’ may sometimes be appropriate, teachers need to give considerable thought to the ways students will gather the data and information they need.

Learning experiences should be as immersive and rich as possible. An interactive online map, for example, is preferable to a classroom poster for most purposes.

Fieldwork is a mandatory component of the Geography K–10 Syllabus and should be undertaken wherever possible.

Links to other learning

Deliverable task c: Learning experiences

Fill in the Learning experiences column on your implementation template. List the fieldwork, key resources and links to other key learning areas that will support student learning for each inquiry and associated case study.

Consideration needs to be given to the experiences that students will have at each step of the inquiry process:

acquiring data and information
processing their data and information
communicating and responding.

Geographical tools, skills and concepts

Photo of boy lying in grass looking through binoculars — Fieldwork using binoculars, Camden Park EEC

The second last column of the implementation planning template allows you to specify further details regarding each inquiry, in particular the:

geographical tools to be taught (K–10)
specific geographical inquiry skills to be developed (7–10)
geographical concepts at the core of this inquiry (7–10).

Note: K–6 teachers may also choose to record details regarding inquiry skills and concepts.

Tools K–6

Tools, skills and concepts 7–10

Timelines

The last column of the implementation planning template allows you to indicate:

when during the stage cycle the inquiry will be taught
the duration of the inquiry.

For all stages except Early Stage 1, the teaching and learning period is two years. There is no necessity that all the inquiries for a focus area are completed in one year.

This part of your planning may require the completion of implementation plans for the other focus area(s) for the stage in question. Attention will also need to be paid to relevant scope and sequence documents.

Deliverable task e: When

Fill in the When column on your implementation template if the requisite information is available.

Note: Completion of the final column is not essential before submitting the deliverable in light of the dependencies involved.