Are you worried that your favourite topics have become an endangered species? Or that the vital skills that make geography have melted away? As leading author of the upcoming Oxford Big Ideas Geography Australian Curriculum series, Mark has spent many hours picking over the draft curriculum and he believes he has found the missing topics and skills, along with many other new opportunities. He will share with you an approach to teaching and learning geography that embeds the key skills in the key concepts of the subject.

1. Big ideas in the Australian
Geography Curriculum
Mark Easton
mark.easton@oup.com

3. Place and space
• Australian environments are defined by patterns of natural
processes, by human activities and by the relationships between them,
including climate and natural resource distribution, resource
use, and settlement patterns
• Natural hazards are a result of natural processes, and human activity
can affect the impacts of these occurrences
• Sustainability requires a balance between using, conserving and
protecting environments, and involves decisions about how resources
are used and managed
• Physical and human dimensions are used to define global
environments
• Distribution maps, climate zone maps and weather maps have
specific features to convey information, including latitude, longitude,
eight compass points, scale and distance, a legend and shading and/or
symbols.

4. Place and space
• Australian environments are defined by patterns of natural
processes, by human activities and by the relationships between them,
including climate and natural resource distribution, resource
use, and settlement patterns
• Natural hazards are a result of natural processes, and human activity
can affect the impacts of these occurrences
• Sustainability requires a balance between using, conserving and
protecting environments, and involves decisions about how resources
are used and managed
• Physical and human dimensions are used to define global
environments
• Distribution maps, climate zone maps and weather maps have
specific features to convey information, including latitude, longitude,
eight compass points, scale and distance, a legend and shading and/or
symbols.

5. • Australia, the Asia–Pacific region and other global settings are defined by a range
of natural characteristics and processes, including landforms, vegetation and climatic
zones, and human activities, including cultural, economic and political activity.
• Interrelationships between human activity and environments result in particular
patterns of land and resource use, and can cause environmental problems
• Governments and communities need to balance economic, social, political and
environmental factors through sustainable development, consumption and
production
• Physical environments are defined by spatial patterns, including the arrangement
of elements on the Earth’s surface, the definable areas of the Earth’s surface, the
space between different locations, and absolute and relative location.
• Maps, including topographic, political and thematic maps, are developed with
particular features, including scale, contour lines and human-created
boundaries, and use the specific skills of observing, visualising, estimating, sketching
and measuring.

6. • Australia, the Asia–Pacific region and other global settings are defined by a range
of natural characteristics and processes, including landforms, vegetation and climatic
zones, and human activities, including cultural, economic and political activity.
• Interrelationships between human activity and environments result in particular
patterns of land and resource use, and can cause environmental problems
• Governments and communities need to balance economic, social, political and
environmental factors through sustainable development, consumption and
production
• Physical environments are defined by spatial patterns, including the arrangement
of elements on the Earth’s surface, the definable areas of the Earth’s surface, the
space between different locations, and absolute and relative location.
• Maps, including topographic, political and thematic maps, are developed with
particular features, including scale, contour lines and human-created boundaries,
and use the specific skills of observing, visualising, estimating, sketching and
measuring.

7. Theme 1: Managing the natural environment
Focus unit 1: Responding to natural hazards
Focus unit 2: Managing catchments
Theme 2: Social environments
Focus unit 3: Sustaining communities
Focus unit 4: Connecting people and places
Theme 3: Resources and the environment
Focus unit 5: Living with climate change
Focus unit 6: Sustaining biodiversity
Theme 4: People and development
Focus unit 7: Feeding the world’s people
Focus unit 8: Exploring the geography of disease

8. So these essential learnings and standards became the chapters of our text
books and our course content.
Australian environments 1. Geospatial skills
Natural hazards 2. Australian Environments
3. Water
Sustainability
4. Endangered species
Global environments
5. Geospatial concepts
Maps
Australian region 6. Disasters
Asia-Pacific 7. The Asia-Pacific region
8. Antarctica
Environmental problems
Sustainable development 1. Geospatial skills and concepts
Physical environments 2. Tectonic hazards
3. Coasts
4. Pollution
5. Climate change
6. Consumption
7. Megacities
8. Tourism

10. Australian Curriculum
• Now: we have a draft
curriculum
• August 6th, revised
draft will be released
but not available for
public comment
• By Christmas (2012) final curriculum
released
• 2013: some schools
• 2014: all schools

12. Year level Unit 1 Unit 2
7 Environmental resources Why people live where they do
8 Landscapes Personal and community
geographies
9 Biomes and food Navigating global connections
security
10 Environmental Global well-being
challenges and
geography
11 The changing biophysical Sustaining Places
cover of the Earth
12 Environmental risk A World in the making
management

14. So what’s in and what’s out?
Australian environments 1. Geospatial skills
Natural hazards 2. Australian Environments
3. Water
Sustainability
4. Endangered species
Global environments
5. Geospatial concepts
Maps
Australian region 6. Disasters
Asia-Pacific 7. The Asia-Pacific region
8. Antarctica
Environmental problems
Sustainable development 1. Geospatial skills and
Physical environments concepts
2. Tectonic hazards
3. Coasts
4. Pollution
5. Climate change
6. Consumption
7. Megacities
8. Tourism

15. So what’s in and what’s out?
Australian environments 1. Geospatial skills
Natural hazards 2. Australian Environments
3. Water
Sustainability
4. Endangered species
Global environments
5. Geospatial concepts
Maps
Australian region 6. Disasters
Asia-Pacific 7. The Asia-Pacific region
8. Antarctica
Environmental problems
Sustainable development 1. Geospatial skills and
Physical environments concepts
2. Tectonic hazards
3. Coasts
4. Pollution
5. Climate change
6. Consumption
7. Megacities
8. Tourism

16. “Just ignore it, we’ll just carry on doing Denial
what we’re doing”
“Who writes this stuff? They don’t know Anger
what they’re doing!”
“I’ll change what I teach if I get given Bargaining
more time to make the changes”
“I hate it when they take away my Depression
favourite topics. No wonder kids don’t
choose geography.” and
“If that’s the way it’s going to be I’d Acceptance:
better just get on with it.”
The five stages of grief!

17. So, some of our favourite topics/units have disappeared or moved
elsewhere, but don’t throw it all out just yet. It might be just a matter of
looking more closely at the curriculum document.

19. Year level Unit 1 Unit 2
7 Environmental resources Why people live where they do
8 Landscapes Personal and community geographies
9 Biomes and food security Navigating global connections
10 Environmental challenges Global well-being
and geography
11 The changing biophysical Sustaining Places
cover of the Earth
12 Environmental risk A World in the making
management

21. Year 8: Sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks contain
minerals and are formed by processes that occur within Earth
over a variety of timescales
Year 9: The theory of plate tectonics explains global patterns
of geological activity and continental movement

22. Year 7, Environmental resources
Environmental hazards such as droughts, or storms, or floods have
different causes, frequencies and distributions.
There are differences and similarities in the ways that communities
manage or adapt to the chosen environmental hazard
Year 8, Landscapes
There are a variety of landscapes throughout the world, which are
produced by geomorphic, biotic and cultural processes over time
(explaining that landforms are produced by a combination of tectonic
(folding, faulting, volcanism), gradational (weathering, erosion and
transportation) and depositional processes)
The causes, location, frequency and effects of one or more landscape
hazards affects the ways that communities manage or adapt to the
chosen hazard
(investigating landscape hazards such as volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes, tsunamis, coastal erosion, beach rips, landslides and
avalanches)

23. My advice #1:
Look closely at the curriculum
documents, don’t listen to the
doomsayers!

24. Even better news!
The new curriculum gives geography a
new, fresh relevance: just look at the
cross-curricula priorities for a start:
1. Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander cultures
and histories
2. Asia and Australia’s
engagement with Asia
3. Sustainability

25. And the general capabilities
literacy
numeracy
competence in ICT
critical and creative
thinking
ethical behaviour
personal and social
competence
intercultural understanding

26. Intercultural understanding

27. My advice #2:
Embrace change, see it as an
opportunity to renew and refresh
your courses and reclaim the rightful
place of geography in your school

28. And then there are the new
opportunities:
Global connections
Personal and community
geographies
Food security
Environmental resources

29. Case study: environmental resources.
This unit focuses on environmental
resources, using water as a case study. It
examines water as an essential, renewable
resource and its role in natural hazards.
There is also a study of a non-renewable
resource. The unit provides a context for
examining different types of resources, the
varying issues arising from their nature,
distribution and use, perceptions by people,
and approaches to managing resource
issues. Unless specified, the case studies
chosen can be from within Australia and
other countries across the region.

30. Issues for teachers
• There is no equivalent unit in the
current course
• The new curriculum is more than a
list of topics, it also includes new
skills, priorities and capabilities
• This seems a pretty tough
introduction to geography for kids
• What happens to my mapping unit?

31. Geographical
enquiry and
skills
Geographical
Concepts for
knowledge
geographical
and
understanding
understanding
Cross
General
Curriculum
capabilities
Priorities

32. Observing,
questioning
Planning, collecting,
evaluating
Processing, analysing,
Resources Place
interpreting,
Population Space
concluding
Landscapes Environment
Communicating
Personal geography Interconnection
Reflecting,
Biomes Sustainability
responding
Global connections Scale
Environmental Change
challenges
Global well-being Literacy
Aboriginal and Numeracy
Torres Strait Islander ICT competence
cultures and Critical and creative
histories thinking
Asia and Australia’s Personal and social
engagement with competence
Asia Ethical behaviour
Sustainability Intercultural
understanding

35. One of the key objectives of
the Australian Curriculum is
deep learning:
‘Successful learners are able to
think deeply’
‘Promoting a world class
curriculum and assessment ...
Deep knowledge,
understanding, skills and
values that will enable
advanced learning and an
ability to create new ideas and
translate them into practical
applications’

37. A geographic enquiry therefore begins with a question and then
seeks to answer that question through a series of clearly defined
steps. This is enquiry learning.
Essential questions, enquiry learning ,deep learning, translating ideas...
What does all of this look like?
The answer is more than 200 years old!
Mount Chimborazo flora, topography and altitude mapping,
source: Alexander von Humboldt, Geography of Plants, 1807

38. Source: National Geographic magazine , October 2010

39. My advice #3:
Deep learning, not wide learning.
Use the process of geographic
enquiry and essential questions to
develop successful learners.

40. Remember that:
The draft Australian Curriculum: Geography is organised into two
interrelated strands: Geographical Knowledge and Understanding and
Geographical Inquiry and Skills.
‘The process of geographical inquiry and the associated geographical
skills are described in the curriculum under five headings, which
represent the stages of a complete investigation. Over each two-year
band, students should learn the methods and skills specified. Every
investigation need not follow every step; the inquiry process may
follow loops, in which students go back to an earlier stage to ask more
questions or to undertake more analysis.’

42. My advice #4:
Don’t rush in too quickly: be
alert, not alarmed!

43. Big ideas in the Australian
Geography Curriculum
Mark Easton
mark.easton@oup.com