#79: Geography Through Enquiry: Foundations of Enquiry-Based Learning (Chapter 1-4 Notes)

1. What is enquiry-based learning?

Pedagogy

• Encompasses more than what teachers do; includes:

  • What students do.

  • Social interactions between teachers and learners, and among students themselves.

Geography Enquiry

• Not merely a set of investigative skills but a holistic approach where:

  • Students extend their geographical knowledge and understanding.

  • Skills are developed—both geography-specific and generic.

• Interconnection of Learning:

  • What students learn and how they learn are inextricably related; curriculum cannot be separated from pedagogy.

  • When planning for enquiry-based unit of work, we have to focus on both what is being investigated and how it is to be investigated.

• Personal Geographies:

  • What students learn is influenced by the knowledge they bring to the classroom and the extent to which we enable them to make use of this.

    • All students have their own varied personal geographies, developed through their everyday direct experiences of the world and their indirect experiences, via the media and other people. [note to self: GEL 1.2]

  • It is essential that students are enabled to connect their experiences and prior knowledge with what they are investigating.

Key Elements of Classroom Enquiry

• Enquiry is question-driven.

  • This is crucial at the start of a new unit of work, but it is also important to maintain curiosity and encourage a questioning attitude throughout it.

• Enquiry is supported by evidence.

  • Geographical evidence can be used at all stages of the enquiry process.

    • Data can be used to provoke curiosity. Students use data to make sense of what they are studying, support their arguments and justify their conclusions.

• Enquiry requires thinking geographically.

  • Enquiry should provide opportunities for students to make sense of geographical information for themselves; to make connections. 

  • Making sense is not a discrete stage in the enquiry process: reasoned thinking is required at all stages.

• Enquiry is reflective.

  • They need to reflect on:

    • The extent to which questions have been answered

    • Sufficiency and reliability of evidence

    • Effectiveness of techniques and appropriateness of conclusions

    • What further questions could be investigated

  • In addition to reflecting on the content they have learned (the 'what'), they could also reflect on how they have learnt and how they might apply this method to future investigations.

Singapore: Geographical Inquiry As “Signature Pedagogy”

• Progression from Lower to Upper Secondary Geography:

  • from asking questions to also formulating hypotheses;

  • from using evidence to locating relevant data;

  • from reflecting on data gathering to evaluating reliability.

Curriculum Making in Geography

• Education as an interactive process in which students participate actively in construction of geographical knowledge.

• Value of both teachers and students thinking out loud. Scaffolding, metacognition and making thinking audible can all contribute to EBL.

Common Misconceptions About Enquiry-Based Learning

1. It is only suitable for fieldwork 

   • Classroom enquiry differs from fieldwork; it often uses secondary data but involves all key enquiry elements.

2. Students are free to choose what and how to investigate

   • While the curriculum dictates what must be studied, students can:

     • Choose examples.

     • Decide how to analyse and present findings.

3. Students have to work independently

   • Students can collaborate in pairs, groups, or through whole-class discussions.

4. There is no place for teacher talk in an enquiry approach

   • Teacher talk is crucial for:

     • Sparking curiosity

     • Presenting new information

     • Introducing and modelling new skills

     • Guiding discussions and addressing questions

5. Enquiry does not make use of teachers’ expert subject knowledge

   • Expert subject knowledge is vital for:

     • Planning and guiding enquiry

     • Identifying and addressing misconceptions

     • Supporting independent or group learning activities

2. Why adopt an enquiry approach?

Framing Geographical Knowledge

• Geographical knowledge is shaped by:

  • The questions and the imaginations that geographers bring to the task

  • The evolving scope of geography, which now includes broader questions—beyond the 'what', 'where' and 'why'—such as:

    • What ought to be?

    • What might?

    • What does this place mean to different groups of people?

    • How is this place/situation represented and why?

    • Is this situation/policy morally just?

    • What are the impacts of empire and colonialism on geography?

    • How does the global north influence geographical perspectives?

    • How can indigenous knowledge enrich geography?

    • Why is interdisciplinary collaboration vital in geography?

    • How can geographers incorporate future perspectives into their work?

Constructivist Approach to Learning Geography

• Key principles of constructivism:

  • How we see and understand the world depends on:

    • Existing assumptions, expectations, and attitudes.

    • Incorporating and reconstructing new knowledge based on prior understanding.

  • Our constructions of the world is continuously modified as new experiences and encounter new ways of thinking.

• Active meaning-making:

  • Knowledge is not passively received but actively constructed.

  • Learning involves:

    • Relating new information to existing knowledge.

    • Reshaping prior understanding in light of new insights.

• Social constructivism:

  • Knowledge is co-constructed through:

    • Interactions with others—directly (e.g. with friends and family) and indirectly (e.g., through various media within our culture).

    • Participating in and debating shared understandings within a community.

  • Students learn better when:

    • Engaged in dialogue and collaboration.

    • Encouraged to share and refine their perspectives.

• Facilitating geographical knowledge construction:

  • Account for Prior Knowledge: Build on what students already know and how they understand the world.

  • Allow Exploration Time: Encourage exploration and connection-making between new and existing knowledge—sense-making is not an instant process.

  • Foster Reflection: Create opportunities for students to reshape and reconstruct their existing knowledge in light of new knowledge.

  • Challenge Perspectives: Make students aware of their own viewpoints and introduce them to alternative perspectives.

  
  

Necessary Enquiry Skills

• Integration with Other Disciplines:

  • Some skills are developed in other areas of the curriculum, e.g., in mathematics, and it is useful to find out what skills students have developed in those subjects.

• Contextual Skill Development:

  • Skills should be developed in purposeful, thematic contexts rather than as isolated activities.

  • Practical, real-world application helps students see the relevance of these skills.

• Conceptual Understanding:

  • Many skills and formulas used in geography demand conceptual understanding, e.g., ratio and correlation.

  • Critical application of skills depends on conceptual understanding, not just rote learning.

• Practice and Retention:

  • Repeated use and practice of skills are crucial for mastery.

  • Without consistent reinforcement, skills are easily forgotten.

Broader Competencies, Capabilities and Attributes

• Relevance of Schooling

  • School education needs to be relevant to the needs of both society and individuals.

  • Education should prepare students not just for work but also for life, by:

    • Helping them navigate and contribute to their culture as citizens, community members, and in their working lives.

    • Encouraging critical thinking about societal norms and values and recognise that people can contribute to developing, challenging, and changing it.

3. How can young people’s knowledge contribute to geographical enquiry?

Personal Geographies

• Students arrive in geography classrooms not as ‘empty buckets’ but with personal geographies shaped by their experiences and by the cultural contexts in which they are growing up.

  • Direct experiences:

    • From their earliest years, children begin to understand their own localities.

      • They make journeys to shops and parks, experience different kinds of weather, and eat food originating from other countries.

      • Some children visit environments different from their own on trips to visit relatives, or on day trips and holidays.

      • They use various forms of transport and start to grasp how places are interconnected.

  • Indirect experiences: Stories, media, toys, books, and interactions with others.

• These “personal geographies” or "everyday knowledge" reflect their experiences of interconnected places and events. Some of this knowledge is built from regular, everyday experiences, while other insights come from occasional or unique experiences.

• Geographical Imaginations (Massey, 2006):

  • The mental images we create of the world and the ways we make sense of it, continuously shaped and expanded by our direct and indirect life experiences.

Value of Students’ Existing Knowledge

• A significant starting point for geography teaching.

• Enlarges as students grow older through broader exposure, such as:

  • Media (e.g., films, television, social media).

  • Relationships and travel.

  • Books and other resources.

Importance of Drawing Connections Between Everyday and Disciplinary Knowledge

1. Enhances Understanding:

   • Everyday knowledge helps students access and make sense of disciplinary concepts.

   • Encourages transformation of everyday thinking into academic understanding.

2. Challenges Misconceptions:

   • Everyday knowledge can sometimes hinder learning due to pre-existing stereotypes or misunderstandings.

   • Teachers must address misconceptions to make learning effective.

     • Misconceptions and stereotypes (e.g., about climate change or Africa) must be unpacked early.

     • Correcting these fosters deeper, more accurate understanding.

3. Increases Relevance:

   • ‘Start with your own experiences and then work outwards from that … Think about how what you read in books and articles connects, or doesn’t, to your everyday life and if so, why?’

     • Connections between new and existing knowledge make learning more meaningful.

     • Encourages students to critically relate disciplinary knowledge to their lives.

Eliciting Students’ Existing Knowledge and Understanding

• Timing Matters:

  • For topics with common misconceptions or stereotypes, elicit knowledge early to challenge and refine it during the unit.

• Focused Questions:

  • Use targeted prompts to uncover various aspects of students' thinking:

    • ‘What?’ – Elicits varied, undifferentiated response but could suggest that geography is only about factual knowledge.

    • ‘Where?’ – Explores spatial distributions and place-based characteristics.

    • ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’ – Probes reasoning and deeper understanding of world processes.

    • ‘Who?’ and ‘What ought?’ – Introduces ethical, human agency, and policy considerations.

• Respecting Feelings:

  • Students might feel reluctant to share sensitive information; ensure a safe and respectful environment.

Ways To Learn More About Young People’s Lives

• Engage Directly:

  • Interviews: Talk with students to understand their perspectives and experiences.

  • Autobiographies: Gain insights into diverse backgrounds and how they influence learning.

• Explore Research:

  • Utilise literature on children’s geographies and related fields (e.g., sociology, anthropology).

  • Journals such as Children’s Geographies provide valuable context on young people's lives and spatial experiences.

• Understand Contexts:

  • Familiarity with the cultural and social environments of students helps teachers connect lessons to their realities.

4. The role of the teacher in enquiry-based learning

Elements of a Good Enquiry Question

• A good enquiry question transforms a topic into something to be investigated rather than passively learned.

• A good enquiry question:

  • Captures students' interest and imagination

  • Places an aspect of geographical thinking, concept or process at the forefront of students’ minds

  • Results in a tangible, lively, substantial, enjoyable “outcome activity” (i.e. at the end of the lesson sequence) through which students can genuinely answer the enquiry question

    • Provides students with the opportunity to share the conclusions of their own investigations

    • Makes the investigative process stimulating and intellectually adventurous, blending pedagogy with exploration.

• Fertile questions:

Role of the Teacher in the Enquiry Classroom

• The teacher’s role extends beyond that of a simple manager or facilitator:

  1. Manager:

     1. Overseeing classroom tasks and ensuring students stay on track.

     2. This is a minimal role that could be done by a non-specialist.

  2. Facilitator:

     1. Supporting learning by guiding students’ processes.

     2. However, this undervalues the critical input of the teacher’s geographical expertise.

  3. Collaborator and Co-Constructor:

     1. Engaging in dialogue with students to co-construct knowledge.

     2. Scaffolding students’ learning within their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).The role of teachers in guiding students’ learning through scaffolding their learning is crucial.

• Students experience the geography curriculum not through how it is expressed on curriculum plans but on how it is enacted in the classroom. It is in the classroom that teachers support students to enable them to move beyond their existing knowledge and understanding.

• Effective scaffolding requires precise knowledge of the characteristics and starting point of the learner, together with a thorough knowledge of the field of enquiry.

  • Components of scaffolding:

    • Engagement: Actively involving students in the task.

    • Representation: Framing tasks in ways students can understand.

    • Connections: Helping students link new tasks to prior knowledge and experiences.

    • Expression: Supporting students in representing their thinking (e.g., through writing or visuals).

    • Reflection: Encouraging students to review the learning process and its value.

    • Empowerment: Enabling students to take control of their own learning and become independent thinkers.

Approaches to Implementing an Enquiry-Based Curriculum