A role for GIS to enhance student's thinking and a personal approach to achieving this...

Geography in UK schools is at a cross-roads, and under pressure to justify its very existence in the National Curriculum as never before. It has also experienced great turbulence in recent years in the number of students taking GCSE, A-Level and beyond, in the face of growing competition from subjects seen as being more ‘trendy’, ‘relevant’ or ‘easier’. Some secondary schools have experienced such a decline in student interest in the subject that it is no longer offered as a GCSE subject.

To sustain the subject as a discrete discipline Geography has, in many cases, had to look within itself and find ways to appeal to, or reposition within, the student ‘marketplace’. One such way has been the ‘technologicalisation’ of both teaching materials for staff and learning media for students. Of the many examples of this new approach/pedagogy, the use of Geographical Information Systems is become ever more common in the secondary Geography classroom. Indeed, it is now an expectation in Ofsted inspections and a widely held expectation within GCSE syllabuses.

But how can teachers harness, and get the most out of the many GIS programmes on the market? Should they simply teach about GIS? Or is there a wider and deeper approach? Can GIS be seen as part of the wider toolkit which a teacher uses to communicate geographical concepts and stimulate students to think geographically?

Once the purpose of GIS is established as part of everyday classroom activity, there follows perhaps a more challenging task of creating resources to ensure its best use and enable it to be embedded within units of work, including GCSE schemes of work. To answer this I have established a freestanding unit for Key Stage 3 and a series of twenty lessons linked to the WJEC-B GCSE syllabus, which teach the students key geographical skills, knowledge and understanding through their direct interaction and manipulation of GIS resources.

I have also directed my attention to addressing the needs of school geography departments without easy access to ICT in engaging students with GIS. Therefore, I have developed a series of eight ‘from the front’ lessons, in which teachers can teach using GIS, while students, rather than needing direct access to a GIS programme, complete their learning using paper-based activities following the lead demonstrated by the teacher.