Pedagogy and Thinking
One of the most important things that we can do as teachers of geography is to expand our children's understanding of the many ways that both they and other people live in the world today. For the majority of children one of the most powerful ways of achieving this is through the use of video and images, especially if they can be projected at a large scale in the classroom.
The strength of the approach advocated in this unit lies in the way that it sets out to engage children empathetically with the lives of others through asking them to use their imagination to 'step inside the picture'. When we ask children to respond to images through the use of their senses, (i.e. what do I see, hear, smell, touch and feel?) we are also developing their world knowledge by:
- [helping them to] recognize how people from all over the world are linked
- building an understanding of other people and cultures
- [supporting them to] recognise the need for a just and equitable society
Adapted from Finding time for things that matter: Geography in the Primary School
The Geographical Association (2002)
Geography: Understanding people and place
Additionally, as we ask children to compare places we also need to support them to see that our local is someone else's global. The above statements would not look out of place in any citizenship curriculum and demonstrate the strong link that geography has with citizenship, particularly global citizenship.
We can help children to develop their understanding of people and place by asking questions such as:
What do people do here?
In asking this question we want children to use their own experience and that of others to respond to questions about people, place and environment.
What influences the way that people live their lives here?
Questions like this require us to investigate the significance of location to everyday life and to explore the human and physical actions and activities that shape and link places and environments. So, for example, in this unit when considering where the children live we also have to take into account whether the children live in a city, a remote rural area, desert, tundra or rain forest and whether they are rich or poor, and what that might mean.
How does the location of a place affect the way the way people live in it?
The use of globes, maps and plans (or the use of Google Earth, where children can zoom into a small locality and out to view the wider world), can support children's understanding of why location (as well as access to resources) can be a key reason why people do things 'differently' in different places. After all, there's a certain kind of magic for many children in imagining what it would be like to go to school over a rope-bridge or on a boat. Map making will also be an important part of developing children's understanding of people and place and we particularly want children to create maps that help to show the relationship between a place and what people do there. One way of achieving this is for children to annotate their maps or to add hotspots to digital maps - see the CPD unit Young Geographers Go Local for more on this.
How does this help us to understand the world in which we live and to make decisions about the way we live our lives?
In comparing different understandings of places and environments children are supported to refine their own views and understanding and encouraged to take informed decisions and actions that impact on their own lives and the lives of others. Read the following quote:
'The need to make sense of the world around us is a basic human instinct. We are all engaged in this process [either consciously or unconsciously] every day of our lives.
As teachers we have a particular role in supporting young people through this process. We aim to equip them with skills to be able to question, interpret information, and to share their views and experiences. This requires us to be conscious of our own awareness and understanding of issues and to question the assumptions that we might be making given our own particular life experiences.'
Elaine Miskell
Tide~ global learning
Course Units
 Introduction |
 Getting Started |
 Going to school here and now |
 Going to school in India |
Let's pull it all together! |
 Pedagogy and Thinking |
 Plenary |
Comment on this page
Comments made by GA members appear instantly - make sure you're logged in! Guest comments will be sent to a moderator for approval.
Current conversations
What our website visitors are talking about.