Top 10 Reasons to Study Geography

To understand basic physical systems that affect everyday life (e.g. earth-sun relationships, water cycles, wind and ocean currents).

To learn the location of places and the physical and cultural characteristics of those places in order to function more effectively in our increasingly interdependent world.

To understand the geography of past times and how geography has played important roles in the evolution of people, their ideas, places and environments.

To develop a mental map of your community, province or territory, country and the world so that you can understand the “where” of places and events.

To explain how the processes of human and physical systems have arranged and sometimes changed the surface of the Earth.

To understand the spatial organization of society and see order in what often appears to be random scattering of people and places.

To recognize spatial distributions at all scales — local and worldwide — in order to understand the complex connectivity of people and places.

To be able to make sensible judgments about matters involving relationships between the physical environment and society.

To appreciate Earth as the homeland of humankind and provide insight for wise management decisions about how the planet’s resources should be used.

To understand global interdependence and to become a better global citizen.

Geography explains the past, illuminates the present, and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?

Michael Palin, President of the Royal Geographical Society, 2009-2012.

Geography is the study of places - their biophysical and human characteristics, their interconnections and interdependencies, and their variation across space. It is the link between the physical and the human that is the unique strength of geography and which helps students to make sense of the world around them. From a very early age young people have a curiosity about the world, a wonderful geographical imagination and an appreciation of the world's diversity.

Methods of teaching Geography

A Verbal learning and real understanding

B Guidance and discovery in learning Geography

C Thinking in Geography

Techniques of teaching Geography

A Classroom techniques

(i) The oral lesson using a textbook and atlas

(ii) The non-oral working lesson

(iii) The use of medium- and large-scale maps

(iv) Using pictures and photographs

(v) The use of other audio visual aids

(vi) The case study approach

(vii) The transformation of data

(viii) Games and stimulation

(ix) Programmed learning

B Fieldwork techniques

(i) Types of fieldwork in the lower secondary school

(ii) Investigations in the upper secondary school

The methods and techniques of teaching Geography : Source: Graves (1971).

Career pathways

There are many types of positions that fit well with geography qualifications. A geography job is any work that focuses on location.

Geographers work in a wide range of fields, from:

Urban and regional planning

Industrial location and marketing

Environmental monitoring and resource management

Community development at home and abroad

As researchers, analysts, consultants, technologists and planners.

The ability to work with data is becoming increasingly important in geography, due, in large part, to technological advances. For example, much of our information about where things are located comes from satellites that continuously beam coordinates to global positioning devices on Earth.

Government and commercial satellites greatly increase the accuracy and amount of geographic data available. At the same time, new Geographic Information System (GIS) software can process those data with greater speed and flexibility. This technology creates new career possibilities for people who understand geography and who can process and use geographic information.

Geographic concepts allow for the exploration of relationships and connections between people and both natural and cultural environments. They have a spatial component.

They provide a framework that geographers use to interpret and represent information about the world.

The development of understanding of these concepts will allow students to participate as critical, active, informed and responsible citizens.

Consider the actions you are taking to support student learning in geography.

Teaching as inquiry

Effective pedagogy in the social sciences

Creating a supportive learning environment

Creating an inclusive learning environment

Using a social inquiry approach in geography

Modelling what we value

Developing the key competencies

Assessment in geography

National Geographic - Geographic Perspective content guide for educators

"The geographic perspective is a lens one may use to analyze virtually any topic that has a spatial distribution, that is, anything that can be mapped. Geography offers a unique way to understand anything that is distributed across space, including the ever-changing relationship between humans and the environment, and thus make predictions and even propose solutions to current problems ...

"Geographers employ both a spatial perspective and an ecological perspective that enable them to ask questions about how humans interact with their physical surroundings ...

"Geography uses an interdisciplinary and generic spatial perspective that may be broadly applied to anything distributed across Earth space. The geographer is therefore free to examine all relevant information in order to make an informed prediction or decision."

Geography without fieldwork is like science without experiments; the ‘field’ is the geographic laboratory where young people experience at first hand landscapes, places, people and issues, and where they can learn and practice geographical skills in a real environment. Above all, fieldwork is enjoyable.

(Bland, Chambers, Donert and Thomas 1996: 165).

Role of ICT in teaching Geography

Support the development of materials, making it easier to produce differentiated Worksheets and reduce preparation; Provide access to resources, statistics and other information; Enable teachers to exchange good ideas and obtain peer support; Aid the assessment, reporting and recording of student progress including supporting target

setting;

Provide access to research and inspection evidence as well as professional development.

Geography