The changing climate of teaching and learning school geography : the case of Singapore

• Main Author: Chang, Chew Hung
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Education
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/105492; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/17042; http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10382046.2012.725965
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Reflecting on a personal journey as a geography student, an academic, an educator and a teacher trainer, the article provides a critical narrative of the state of school geography in Singapore and argues that its development has remained relevant to the changing issues at a global level. Using personal reflections and document analyses, school geography is traced from the primary school to tertiary levels, covering aspects of curriculum, teacher education and assessment. A specific example of education for climate change is used to examine if school geography in Singapore is indeed relevant to engaging global issues. The school geography curriculum can be designed to imbue our learners with the awareness, knowledge, skills, attitudes, evaluation ability and participation required to discourse and engage environmental concerns such as climate change. It is only through this change to the climate in teaching and learning geography that there is hope to mitigate climate change and other global concerns.