Republic of the Philippines

SURIGAO DEL SUR STATE UNIVERSITY

Tandag City

ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 – 2021

REACTION PAPER

1. Title of the Article: Geography at the Heart of Primary Curriculum

Author: Tessa Willy and Simon Catling
Source: H T T P S : // I MP A C T . C H A R T E R E D . C O L L E GE /A R T I C L E /G E O GR A P H Y - A T - H E A R T - P R I MA R Y - C U R R I C U L U M /
Date of Issue: September 2018
Brief Summary of the article:
Geography in is referred to as the “umbrella” subject in the primary curriculum
because of its capacity to make tangible and effective connections across subject.
Geography’s fundamental role lies in helping children to understand the world, its
environments and places near and far, and the processes that create and affect them. It
encourages a holistic appreciation of how the world works and of the interconnections
between concepts such as scale, community, cultural diversity, interdependence and
sustainability. Geography is a subject that contextualises and extends the possibilities
for developing and applying language and mathematics, and enriches understanding of,
and in, subjects from science and history to art and design.

As a required curriculum subject, it is important that geography is not only given

appropriate time, equivalent to at least its hour a week, but is also identified clearly and
taught effectively. The following important aspects of the subject that also advocates
teachers’ agency in shaping their geography curriculum.are the following:

(1) Context- emphasizes that geographical enquiry, outdoor learning and

fieldwork, children’s personal geographies, spatial
awareness, mapwork and graphicacy, learning geographical
technologies and environmental geography should be used to
deepen children’s understanding of challenging and, at times,
controversial realities, events and concepts.

(2) Curriculum making- is premised on teachers in providing rich, broad and

balanced learning for children and opportunities for them to
apply and adapt their learning for other subjects – we must be
clear about just what geography is and why it is important to learn and
children having agency in developing their geographical
studies within subject or cross-curricular topics

Through active engagement in primary geography, children are enabled to learn

not only about the world but also how it works, how it fits together and how to make a
difference and become positive contributors to it.

2. Reflection/ Reactions
Geography in primary curriculum should be given emphasis as the teaching of
geography contributes young minds in understanding and creating better world. Its rich
and broad content across curriculum not only help children attain intellectual knowledge
on mapwork, graphicacy, and physical features but also broadens their perspective to
the world at a range of scales, thus developing young minds holistically will further
become a greater gain futuristically in making a difference and become positive
contributors to the world we live in.
Generally, how geography is being taught affects the impacts to the children.
Approaches that develops proficiency in asking relevant questions, collecting and
analysing data, and drawing conclusions (geographical enquiries), provides
transformative opportunities for learning in the environment as well as from it, about it
and for it (outdoor learning by employing fieldwork skills), provide insight into the
nature, variety and lives of the neighbourhoods and communities in a school’s
catchment area and beyond (personal graphies), develops children’s sense of place
and space in the world at a range of scales by studying locations, places and
environments (spatial awareness), developing the skills of decoding, interpreting,
comprehending and analyzing information and messages from maps and recognizing
the features and aspects of an urban, rural or wild area (maps),  enhance understanding
of places and environments and helping to develop geographical awareness and
articulate learning through the use of geographical learning technologies, and know
more about their physical and human world and the interplay of those two for
environmental management and sustainability (environmental geography).
Further more, the above-mentions approaches may be strengthen if curriculum
makers make a serious account on the contribution of geography to the primary
curriculum. As curriculum mandates the blue print of the subjects and thus giving
greater power implementing such approaches, curriculum makers should focus on
directing the teachers and its agencies to be engaged critically in developing
geographical studies within subject or cross-curricular topics.
Geography is a gateway of children to begin to understand the potential of their
role and the impact that they might have through their actions and interests It also
unsurprisingly develops their knowledge and understanding in the environment and their
sense of responsibility and a desire to care for – even improve – what is around them.
Additionally, it involves the consideration of resolutions for potential issues (linking with
social, moral, spiritual and cultural (SMSC) education), and encourages articulation and
expression through writing, debating and persuasion. It demonstrates learning that
interconnects subjects and gives greater meaning and significance to enquiries and, in
presenting findings, subjects such as art and design are engaged through modelling,
map-making and informative displays. Finally, geography enables children to develop
autonomy and empowerment, applicable across their lives .
In the context of how important teaching of geography is to our daily lives,
realization stuck me now as Filipino and as someone who have already undergone
primary schooling, that Philippine curriculum, in the lens of geography teaching in public
schools, put little emphasis on some of the important aspects that a young Filipino mind
must encounter. To name a few like personal geographies, outdoor learning and field
work and learning geographical technologies, this saddens me of not experiencing such
valuable and meaningful learning which could have made a great difference on how
some of the people I know view the world. Moreover, this generalization propose a
challenge to me as Social Science teacher on becoming an instrument of change in
teaching geography and even all aspects of social science in a holistic manner.

3. Conclusion/ Recommendations
The article showed countless contribution that geography may implies to the
young minds. And likely, the geography teacher must have compassion in imparting
their knowledge and wisdom without any reservation. For us to reap good citizens in the
future, teachers must therefore start by teaching curriculum not just by mind but also by
heart. In the end, a great intellect is nothing without a good character. Thus, the primary
goal of teachers in geography is to bestow holistic development to create future
generations that are compassionate, articulate and responsible, interconnected with the
nature, and has greater understanding to the world around them. Furthermore, as an
aspiring social science teacher, teaching of geography should not be taken for granted
as geography helps us understand life and the world we live in.