Page 157 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

CHAPTER 6 How Can I Teach Geography and Anthropology Powerfully? 129
on national assessments, concerns about developing a shared cultural literacy, and increasing recognition that Americans need to become better informed about the rest of the world in order to understand global, economic and political issues (Gregg & Leinhardt, 1994; Haas, 2001). Geographical content is well worth emphasizing for these and other reasons (e.g., developing empathy, minimizing chauvinism, and helping students begin to understand and appreciate the reasons for variation in economies and cultures). However, this potential will not be realized unless geography instruction shifts from confronting students with endless parades of facts to teaching them to think about the world the way geographers do and to ferret out and apply big ideas. Examples of powerful ideas should be an integral part of the curriculum and instruction. They include the idea that humans and the environment interact; the physical environment influences human activity and humans influence and change the environment; successive or continuing occupancy by groups of people and natural processes go together to make their individ- ual distinctiveness; more changes occur near the boundaries of regions than the interiors of regions, and so forth.
Lash and Wridt (2002) claim that the current research on geographic education seems to ignore the fact that geography matters. The content does not situate the learning pro- cess within a particular social, cultural, or physical context. Furthermore, it tends to ignore the connections among home, community, and the larger social contexts. We sug- gest that the human side needs to be added showing how geographic content and skills are a part of students’ lives as well as the lives of their parents. This addition serves as the motivational factor—and why the students should care about geography.
The Five Fundamental Themes
Professional associations have cooperated to help teachers understand geography as a discipline and to suggest powerful ideas to emphasize when teaching it. The first major step was publication of the Guidelines for Geographic Education: Elementary and Second- ary Schools (Joint Committee on Geographic Education, 1984). These guidelines provide a clear content and skills framework for K–12 geography that is structured around the five fundamental themes outlined below (Petersen, Natoli, & Boehm, 1994). They include a scope and sequence for Grades K–6 that outlines concepts and learning outcomes for each grade level.
The sponsoring organizations later created the Geographic Education National Implementation Project (GENIP) to advance the spirit of the guidelines by developing teaching materials, reviewing teacher certification standards, sponsoring workshops for teachers, and advising groups who prepare diagnostic and competency tests in geography. GENIP’s work has included publication of a key document for elementary teachers: K–6 geography: Themes, Key Ideas, and Learning Outcomes (GENIP, 1987) and a book on how teachers can connect their theme-based geography teaching to the social understanding and civic efficacy goals of social studies (Stoltman, 1990).
The efforts of GENIP have been assisted by the National Geographic Society, which established its Geography Education Program to develop statewide alliances for geo- graphic education in each state. These alliances are partnerships between teachers and university geographers. They circulate materials and sponsor summer workshops and other geographic education programs for teachers. You can contact your state’s geographic alliance for information and resources to help you with your geography teaching. The National Geographic Society also has produced a map of the United States that demonstrates the five fundamental themes (GENIP/NGS, 1986) and circulated a teacher’s handbook based on the themes (Ludwig et al., 1991).
Finally, Boehm and Petersen (1994) developed an elaboration of the five fundamental themes based on experience in using them with teachers. They noted that the themes
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