We have a new statement for ROUND 8 of the PGQM

3c Geography is seen as a key subject to engage:

• critical and creative thinking about `people & place’,

• change (locally & globally) • and possible futures

What does this statement mean in practice?

Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is the purposeful and reflective judgement about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments. Critical thinking involves determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking• See also:

http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/critical-thinking.php

Creative Thinking – part of the enquiry process

Creative- thinking skills • These enable pupils to generate and extend

ideas, to suggest hypotheses, to apply imagination, and to look for alternative innovative outcomes.

Thinking Skills http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/links

What do `critical & creative thinking’ look like when used to develop geographical thinking?

• We have a new statement for Round 8

• The words in blue within this presentation were written as the introduction to Simon Catlin chapter in the Primary Geography Handbook. They are exemplified here with photographs and examples of work that have , in the main, been submitted by schools that have achieved the Primary Geography Quality Mark.

• I’m inviting you to reflect on Simon’s words as you think about geography in your school. Are you clear about what geography is, are you colleagues clear? The question I want to raise is, `how do we teach primary geography effectively if we don’t know what it is?’

• Chapter 6 , p. 75Simon Catling

the Primary Geography HandbookThe Geographical Association (2004)

“Geography is a way of looking at the world that focuses our learning on: - what places and the environment are like - why they are important to us - how they are changing and - how they might develop in the future.”

I didn’t expect that so many men would be coming in and out of GT News at this time of

day.

Fieldwork provides children from Hallam Primary School, Sheffield, with an opportunity to engage with some of these questions.

Children from Little Common Primary School used the photographs taken on the walk and copied them onto the map

In the big evergreen hedge we saw a little birds nest. There was a bit of plastic in it!

“To make sense of the features and layout of our immediate and the wider world, we map it, both to see where things are and to help us understand how it is organised.”

http://www.geography.org.uk/projects/younggeographers/resources/littlecommon/

“Recognising spatial patterns helps us to:understand the variety of natural and human processes at work in the environment. to plan ahead, whether to devise routes for travel or to reorganise parts of the locality.”

Children from Whittingham Primary School, Northumberland created this map to show places they had visited and routes they had walked. They used the software programme Local Studies.

“Obviously I feel excited

here”.

“... And recognising how we feel about different places is of equal importance. “

In this work from Methodist J & I children were asked to link their feelings to different places within the school grounds. The way we feel about places is very important and an integral part of developing our `sense of place’. http://tiny.cc/ANmLS

Questions such as these can help children to think about their place in the world:

• Where do I live? • How does it look? • How do I feel about it?Y5 Methodist J & I, Wakefield

http://www.quikmaps.com/full/47961

“Places have meaning for us they are where we are, not just where we reside or go to school, to play or to work, but where we feel ‘at home’ or ‘out of place’. We relate to places, and this relationship is a key element of our personal identity.”

IdentityPlace

IdentityPlace

How might the children in the photograph answer these questions?

• Where do I live? • How does it look? • How do I feel about it?

Geography ... engages children with thinking about change (locally & globally)“We have a clearer understanding today about how we are affecting the environment than ever before. In our concern to improve our own lives and the lives of others, we have begun to realise that using resources wisely, managing the natural environment and repairing inadvertent damage is essential for our future.”

I learnt that we need more materials like peat and soil that absorb water and less materials

like concrete.

Hallam Primary School, Sheffield

Investigating flooding The River Don in 2007

“The idea of the global citizen who realises the interplay and interdependence of the local and the wider world and who argues for responsible action in day-to-day life lies at the heart of geography.”