I am at the chalk face of geography in the classroom. And geography is
a fantastic subject to teach. But whilst young people (especially at
the tail end of school) are passionate about travel and politics why
is every student not in the queue for geography?
It is very easy to suck the life out of the subject in the classroom.
Don't get me wrong there are many excellent practitioners, but there
are also many for whom students walk out the door thinking 'that was
so tedious.' I know, because I've heard it and it makes me cringe. You
can teach the subject with enormous energy and spark, but also make it
irrelevant even disrupting the connection between case studies and
personal experience at times.
There are many geography teachers who are not geography specialists.
So many schools say to teachers, "Well you can teach a little
geography to make your load up," and this is so wrong. Despite its
everyday utility, the geographical paradigm and way of conceptualising
is a learnt skill and it takes an experienced practitioner to be able
to instil this in and to inspire students, so that they can share the
pleasure in the geographical 'Eureka' moments.
So whilst there may be less corduroy in the classroom, there needs to
be more widespread and consistently good classroom delivery. The
Geography Teaching Today website is starting to address this problem
in a systematic and peer-approved kind of way, and of course there are
many excellent sites elsewhere. But there is also dross on the Internet.
So, in part it boils down to Heads of Departments to lift the profile
of their subject and to challenge their teachers with new, innovative,
relevant and compelling ways to operate in the classroom.
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Dr Andrew Lee FRGS CGeog
Apple Distinguished Educator
Head of Geography and Tertiary Counsellor
Dulwich College, Shanghai
266 Lan An Road
Shanghai CHINA
www.thinkingeography.com
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