Geographical Association

If you are working towards TLA Stage 1 or 2 verification, you will begin your learning journey by deciding on a learning and change focus. As the TLA literature states: "It is important to establish a clear, manageable focus for your learning by considering what you already know and identifying where you might find out more". The activities in this section are designed to help you set your
learning and change focus.

It may be that you already have a focus in mind relating to the topic of food. However, some possible foci for the learning journey are suggested below. These will be explicitly supported by the content of the courses, but you may alternatively wish to select an entirely different one.

• Production of a new scheme of work for Key Stage 3 related to the topic of food or food security
• Introduction of more ICT / GIS related work into an existing unit of work
• Development of a unit for 'A' level students which involves research and an exploration of a contentious issue, or explores a new area such as 'rebranding'
• Focus for the completion of a unit or essay for a Masters / GTP / PGCE or related qualification
• Trialling of new pedagogical approaches with students
• Creation of display materials as a way of improving the learning environment across the geography department
• Preparation of materials for a particular group: e.g. G&T, SEN, perhaps in relation to departmental targets
• Completion of portfolio for an application for the Secondary Geography Quality Mark

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were finalised at a conference in 2000 and provided guidance in eight key areas, for improvements which were intended to be completed by the year 2015. They were related to the general area of development.

The 8 Millennium Development Goals are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Some suggested weblinks:

UN Millenium Development Goals - has more details of the goals if required.

End Poverty 2015 - a site which provides a range of additional resources related to the MDG.

MDG Monitor - progress on the goals, which can also be seen on a Google Earth KMZ file (this is a useful additional way of illustrating progress towards the goals to students on an interactive whiteboard in the classroom).

Goal 1 is related to food and hunger. Here is the exact wording:

Target 1c: "Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger"

The inclusion of food in the first of the goals underlines the importance of food, and supports the significance of food as a context for learning for students.

Take a large blank sheet of paper, open a mind-mapping software package such as 'Inspiration' or visit on online mind-mapping site such as MindMeister, free software such as FreeMind, commercial software such as Inspiration, or a blank page of whiteboard software.

Create a mind-map with the word FOOD in the centre and think of the possible curriculum links that could be explored, resources that could be tapped into, people who could be contacted, personal experiences which could be investigated. Additional support could be given by providing a range of key questions to direct the mind-mapping in particular directions. Suggest what those questions might be.

At this stage, the aim should be to consider all possibilities, which can then be narrowed down later when you move on to one or more of the other courses in this family.

The arms of the mind-map could be related to key geographical concepts. Here are the key geography concepts from the QCA KS3 Programme of Study:

Place

Space

Scale

Interdependence

Physical and human processes

Environmental interaction and sustainable development

Cultural understanding and diversity

Find further information on planning at KS3 on the GA website.

Progress towards the Millennium development goals should by now have been substantial, given the years that have passed since 2000. However, many of the goals are not on schedule to be met by 2015, and some commentators have suggested that the global financial crisis and other 'unanticipated' events may derail the progress made so far.

View this 2009 report which contains a recent statement by the UN Secretary General:

The Millennium Goals Development Goals Report 2009 (PDF)

What does the report say about the progress on Goal 1 in particular? How are current world issues affecting the planned progress towards the completion of Goal 1?

Living Geography is an approach to curriculum development which emphasises an overlap between the subject discipline, the choices made by teachers and the contributions that students might make.

Look at the image to the roght which summarises the 'Living Geography' approach to curriculum development.

Suggest which particular aspects you would consider to be an important aspect of work on food and its connections with students.

Try to identify areas which you would like to develop as part of your learning journey. It may be that you have not used this approach or topic before, and would like to trial it.

Having finished this Getting Started section you should now be in a position to decide on a learning and change focus and to complete part one of the TLA learning journal, which is called 'Preparing for the Learning Jouney'. You can download a sample writing frame for this learning journal below. Remember, this is just a framework and your presentation of part one does not have to take a written form.

View TLA Stage One Writing Frame
View TLA Stage Two Writing Frame

At this point it would also be useful to identify another colleague(s) who you would like to work with. It is important that you discuss ideas with someone else as you work through the courses. This might be someone from another curriculum area. Food offers a lot of potential for cross-curricular work. See this example from a Scottish school where a Nintendo DS game was used as the inspiration for the planning, with thanks to Derek Robertson.

Where next?

Now it is time to sharpen your learning and change focus by engaging more deeply with the knowledge base and developing a plan for your learning journey. You can choose to focus on just one or two of the courses below or you may wish to work through them all in order to develop an integrated unit of work. It is highly recommened that in any case you begin with Why is hunger a geographical issue? which sets the scene for the other courses.