Stages of Learning in The Humanities - Geography

The VELS take account of the developmental stages of learning young people experience at school. While student learning is a continuum and different students develop at different rates, they broadly progress through three stages of learning. General statements about characteristics of learners in these three stages are available at Stages of learning.

The following statements describe ways in which these characteristics relate to learning experiences and standards in each of the three stages of learning in the Geography domain.

Geography helps students to understand their individual world and the global world in spatial terms. Geography helps to develop an understanding of global citizenship and the ways in which places and environments are interdependent.

Years Prep to 4 – Laying the foundations

In Years Prep to 4, geography learning takes place through the general Humanities domain. As a starting point for learning students engage with their own experiences to help them understand the world around them. Students develop their spatial awareness through a consideration of the local community, the different groups in society and their place in one or more groups. By seeing and hearing about other places outside their experience, their sense of curiosity and wonder leads them to consider how and why other places are different from their own. Towards the end of Year 4 students distinguish and describe the natural and built features of the environments identifying and explaining changes. They make comparisons between a variety of places and develop their understanding of the geography of Victoria. They begin to develop an understanding of the interconnected nature of the world.

Through structured experiences within their immediate environment and community, students develop spatial awareness and can begin to organise their ideas through the application of the spatial concepts in geography such as location, distance and direction together with simple spatial associations and spatial change over time. In these years students develop their knowledge and spatial awareness about where home, school and the playground are located and where they are in relation to one another. They extend their understanding to the geography of their local area and investigate and describe elements of the natural and human environments. Students develop a vocabulary to describe their observations and investigations.

Early in this stage the geospatial skills of students involve the drawing of simple pictorial maps of where they are in space in relation to other phenomena. Students develop increasingly sophisticated map skills enabling them to visualise and describe location and direction using grids and compass points.

Students explore how and why natural factors and human activities affect their lives. Beginning in their local environment, for example, selecting safe routes to schools (spatial concepts of location, direction and distance) they progress to group and collaborative tasks and consider environmental differences and resource management throughout Australia. Students collect, record and describe data obtained through field study surveys and measurements to form conclusions about the use of resources.

Years 5 to 8 – Building breadth and depth

In these years with increasing cognitive development and experience, students begin to develop a breadth of understanding about natural processes and human activities beyond their immediate environment. They develop an expanded understanding of Australia and the region of which Australia is a part – the Asia-Pacific. Students begin to apply the more abstract cognitive processes to environmental issues.

Students apply their spatial awareness in a more sophisticated way to more complex questions and issues through the use of additional core concepts such as spatial interaction, movement, region and scale. Students identify patterns and processes in natural environments and human activities to understand increasingly complex interactions of physical and human phenomena within Australian and other environments and to generalise from particular contexts. They learn to use a process of inquiry that asks: What? Where? How? Why? What ought? They investigate environmental issues and analyse different perspectives and consider possible solutions to current and future challenges to enable sustainable use of resources. They describe and explain spatial changes through time from their own direct observation and by comparing maps, photographs and other visual media.

Students describe specific locations through reading and interpreting topographic and other large-scale maps. They apply their understanding of scale (distance), grids (location), compass bearings (direction) and legend to identify features and patterns and interpret trends when using maps as sources of information. They participate in fieldwork and use an increasing variety of techniques for collecting and presenting data. Students apply many of the practical skills that they have acquired over the previous years.

Years 9 and 10 – Developing pathways

In these years students develop the ability to analyse and explain increasingly complex spatial associations and interactions of natural systems and human activities in Australia and in other parts of the world. They apply inquiry-based strategies to investigate issues and communicate their findings as a range of scales: local, regional, national and global. Students ask questions that focus not only on what, where, how, why, but also on what impact, how ought and what will it be in the future? They become increasingly aware of the global links between societies, cultures and natural environments and the impact of globalisation on their own and other people’s lives. Students use their understanding of sustainability to evaluate various management strategies and develop policies to resolve an issue.

Students are skilled in interpreting different kinds of maps, photographs and satellite images at different scales. They apply their geospatial skills such as map overlays, database manipulations and geographic information system (GIS) to the spatial analysis of phenomena.

Students undertake field investigations to collect, collate, analyse and evaluate data. They present data using a variety of maps, graphs, photographs, diagrams and other forms. They analyse fieldwork and other data to provide explanations, make informed decisions and develop a policy for the management of a local issue that is important and relevant to their lives.

National Statements of Learning

The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) incorporate the opportunities to learn covered in the national Statements of Learning (www.mceetya.edu.au/mceetya/statements_of_learning,22835.html). The Statements of Learning describe essential skills, knowledge, understandings and capacities that all young Australians should have the opportunity to learn by the end of Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in English, Mathematics, Science, Civics and Citizenship and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

The Statements of Learning were developed as a means of achieving greater national consistency in curriculum outcomes across the eight Australian states and territories. It was proposed that they be used by state and territory departments or curriculum authorities (their primary audience) to guide the future development of relevant curriculum documents. They were agreed to by all states and territories in August 2006.

During 2007, the VCAA prepared a detailed map to show how the Statements of Learning are addressed and incorporated in the VELS. In the majority of cases, the VELS learning focus statements incorporate the Statements of Learning. Some Statements of Learning are covered in more than one domain. In some cases, VELS learning focus statements have been elaborated to address elements of the Statements of Learning not previously specified. These elaborations are noted at the end of each learning focus statement.