Planning for the global dimension
Opportunities to explore the global dimension in geography need to be planned for. During a key stage pupils need to be given opportunities to decrease their egocentricity and to increase their awareness of global connections and interconnections. We need to create opportunities to explore and challenge their perceptions of others and other places, as well as of themselves and their place.
As teachers we will be co-learners with them and so we need to be aware of our own images of places, and of our own geographical imaginations. Planning for the global dimension in geography demands that we must give pupils time to explore the complexity of places, people, locations and perceptions. The activity on the right will allow you to do this.
Each place chosen for this activity has some significance in terms of its location. We cannot engage pupils fully with the global dimension unless we locate places and explore some of those places in significant depth. When doing so, we need to be aware of our own and our pupils' perceptions of a place. Exploring these perceptions is a way of connecting pupils with their prior experiences and challenging them to deepen their thinking. Look at the activity now.
Activity Resources:
- Images
- Interactive
- Sound
- Text
- Video
Activity
- Click on the Interactive icon and look at the 'Treasures and eyesores' animation. Look at each photograph in turn with your pupils. Ask them to say whether each is a treasure or an eyesore, and to give their reasons.
- Plan an activity requiring your pupils to create a 'photo trail' of your school locality. Ask them to choose five treasures and five eyesores. Challenge them to explain what needs to be done to maintain the treasures, and what needs to be done, in some instances, to make the eyesores into treasures. Would everyone agree with their classification and proposals?
