GEOGRAPHICAL ENQUIRY

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GEOGRAPHICAL ENQUIRY

• Why Enquiry?

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Boring and irrelevant
Too many boring textbooks
Cant see the point of it
Too many facts and too much copying
Too easy and not enough challenge
Too much repetition
No one asks me what I think
OFSTED 2008
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NEW
OLD
Concepts Ideas
Facts Information
Relevance Real
Out of date Imaginary
PLTS Learning Challenge
Recall Record
Enquiry Resource led
Information Teacher led
Criticality
Passive Uncritical
Pupil Voice Values
Teacher Textbook
Continuity Progression
Disconnected
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Enquiry and Learning
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How do we develop understanding?
What is it? How does it fit in?
Schemata or existing concepts
Children learn through actively engaging with
their environment. They construct new knowledge
by relating it to what they already know and
challenging their existing thinking.
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DEVELOPING UNDERSTANDING
IDEAS
UNDERSTANDING Making Sense
EXPERIENCE
MENTAL PROCESSES
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What is geographical knowledge?
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What is knowledge of the world like?

• Static .Dynamic
• Simple .Complex
• Factual .Perceived
• Complete .. Partial

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Geographical Enquiry

• Geographical enquiry is clearly outlined as an
  active, questioning approach to teaching and
  learning which includes values enquiry, and is
  integrated with the development of geographical
  skills. It is also explained that enquiry and
  skills are developed and used when studying the
  required content and not separately. All work in
  geography should include an element of
  geographical enquiry.
• Rawling 2000

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Increasing relevance
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What does this slide show?What is the
geographical significance?
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Did You know? The average distance a woman in
Africa walks to collect water is 6.5km The weight
of an average bucket carried on a womans head is
20kg
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Other examples can be found on the web

• World Mapper provides a range of maps showing
  global issues of geographical significance e.g.
  http//www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected22
  7

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What is geographical significance?

• Why have you chosen the topic?
• Why is it geographically important? How would you
  justify it?
• How will you communicate its importance to the
  pupils?
• Are you teaching topical issues with obvious
  relevance?
• Are you developing understanding of real places?

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Stages in Learning

• Engagement stimulus- curiosity- questions -
  concrete examples
• Construction using data - making sense -
  challenge thinking relating new to old
  modifying
• Reflection debrief - consolidation plenary

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Roberts (2003) page 44
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Enquiry Questions
Route to Enquiry
Stages in Learning
Awareness Definition What is it? Stimulus
Description Analysis/ Explanation Prediction/ Evaluation Where is it? What is it like? How did it get like this? How is it changing? What do different people think about it? What are the choices? What is likely to happen? With what consequences? Making Sense
Decision Making What do I think should happen? Reflection
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Higher Order Thinking

• Higher order thinking occurs when a person takes
  new information and information stored in memory
  and interrelates and/or rearranges and extends
  this information to achieve a purpose or find
  possible answers in perplexing situations.
• Lewis and Smith (1993, p.136)

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Lesson Beginnings

• Some teachers have adopted a rigid formulaic
  three-part lesson which does not allow for
  spontaneity and creativity.
• It is common to see pupils at the start of the
  lesson copying objectives into their books with
  little thought or care. Not only does this waste
  time but what they are copying is the content..
• Some good use has been made of starters to lead
  and engage pupils interest and lead into or
  support the main teaching activity.
• (Ofsted 2008)

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STIMULUSA Need to Know

• Enquiry involves investigation into a
  geographical issue.
• Enquiry can be teacher led or pupil led.
• Enquiry can be a lesson or a sequence of lessons
• For enquiry there has to be a need to know a
  purpose for the investigation.
• Stimulus materials are resources which are used
  to introduce a topic, create interest, develop
  curiosity and raise relevant questions for
  investigation.

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• I care more about the colour of the gear knob
  on my Mercedes SLK than the amount of CO2 it
  produces.

Jeremy Clarkson
Who said what?
"I'm no longer sceptical. Now I do not have any
doubt at all. I think climate change is the major
challenge facing the world. "I have waited
until the proof was conclusive that it was
humanity changing the climate." "If we care
about our grandchildren we have to do something
and demand our governments do something."
David Attenborough
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Enquiry SequenceShould I be bothered about
climate change?

• What different opinions are there on climate
  change?
• What is climate change?
• What causes climate change?
• How do humans contribute to climate change?
• Who and what will be affected by climate change?
• Are there any solutions?
• What do I think now?
• Will I change anything about my life?

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READ THIS TO YOUR CLASS

• As I got down from the plane the first thing I
  that struck me was just how hot it was. The sun
  was so bright yellow against the vivid blue sky
  that I had to shield my eyes. As I looked around
  me the ground seemed parched and dry. I put my
  hand on the ground and felt the warmth. Grains of
  sand ran through my fingers. I looked around to
  see any signs of life and all I could see were a
  few strands of dry grass like straw. In the
  distance it all looked the same. It seemed
  endless with no signs of life except a few
  spinney plants poking from the dry golden ground.
  My first thoughts were Where on earth am I?
  Can I survive here?

What do you need to know?
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Could I survive in a desert?

• What is a desert?
• Where are the worlds deserts?
• What are deserts like?
• Why are they like that?
• How are they changing?
• What are the impacts of change?
• Could I survive?

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Long Term Effects of Tsunami
Task stimulus

• The Red Cross are keen to attract more money to
  support the victims of the Tsunami. They feel
  that people have lost interest in it because it
  was so long ago. They want you to write an
  article for their magazine to attract more
  funding. You need to help people understand that
  there are long term effects of such a disaster.

What do you need to know?
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Tsunami

• What were the short term impacts?
• What are the long term impacts?
• How can we persuade people to send more money?

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60 Million and Counting
Extract from newspaper article

• By George! Our little baby is one in 60 million
  Feb 3 2006By Andrew Heath 
• MEET little George Scott, Britain's 60 millionth
  person - and the son of proud Kenilworth couple
  Ian and Emma.
• Weighing in at 8lbs 15oz, and born at 10.32am in
  Warwick Hospital on Tuesday, a week and a day
  ahead of schedule, George is unaware he made
  history.
• But his birth, by caesarean section, coincided
  with the time experts predicted the UK population
  would go over the 60,000,000 threshold.
• It marked a rise of 10 million in the UK since
  the 1970s and is likely to be the last landmark
  of its kind for 60 years.

Are there too many people in the UK? What do you
need to know?
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Are there too many people in the UK?

• What do we need to know?
• How quickly is the population is rising?
  (population growth)
• Where do people live and is enough space left?
  (population density and distribution)

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Example of the beginning of a scheme of work on
Climate Change.
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Should I buy Starbucks Coffee?

• Since March 2001, thousands of activists have
  taken part in protests and leafleting events
  outside Starbucks cafes in over 300 cities in the
  US, Canada, New Zealand and England in what has
  become the largest consumer campaign ever mounted
  against a major US food and beverage company.
• http//www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/
  coffee/StarbucksFlyer.pdf

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Ugly Monstrosity or Thing of Beauty?
www.npower.com/yourhome/green/northhoylewindfarm/
www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/articles/c/cornwall_wind
farm.shtml
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You are sent this E Mail,

• Dear All
• As you may be aware, in order to reduce that
  amount of waste going to landfill, Oxfordshire
  County Council is proposing to build an
  incinerator to burn very large volumes of
  domestic and industrial waste either at Sutton
  Courtenay or at Ardley.  The local communities
  believe that there are considerable downsides to
  the use of incineration in terms of human health,
  the environment and cost.  These are clearly and
  succinctly set out in the film you can find on
  You Tube using the following link
• http//uk.youtube.com/watch?vyht_xfUngJkfeature
  channel_page.
• Please have a look at this and if you agree, help
  us to persuade OCC to evaluate the options to
  Incineration in the interests of the future
  health of Oxfordshires community by signing the
  petition at
• http//www.scai.co.uk
• Please sign up.
• Regards
• Sarah

Would you sign the petition? What do you need to
know? What further questions might you ask?
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Enquiry Resources

• Identify bias, opinion and abuse of evidence
  this includes evaluating the quality of
  information by asking questions about its source,
  what it was collected for and how it has been
  analysed and presented.

Geography National Curriculum
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Tables of Numbers Need Tasks That Promote
Understanding
Can you spot the rogue data?
How can you spin the data?
Source Chris Durbin
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Active Learning StrategiesMagenta Principles

• Reduce it
• Change it
• Assemble it
• Search for it
• Connect it
• Arrange it
• Enlarge it
• Simplify it

• Classify it
• Compare and contrast it
• Deconstruct it
• Apply it
• Prioritise it
• Act It out

Waingels College, Reading
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Who killed Ratty?The water vole was once a
common sight along our river banks. It is now the
UKs most endangered mammal

• What type of habitat does a water vole like?
• How and why has that habitat been changed?
• What are the effects of the changes?
• Can anything be done to restore these habitats?
• What do I think should happen?