GCE Geography
from 2016
Preparing to teach
Session 1
Introduction and Welcome
09:30 – 10:30
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Introduction to the new specification
Specification content - What has been included?
Second draft of specification
What do we really want from each component – what
will need to be taught?
• Workshop – Challenges and opportunities + feedback
Aims of WJEC GCE in Geography
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To highlight the relevance and importance of geography in our daily
lives.
To promote learning opportunities that focus on current and topical
issues/examples, encouraging teachers to use the latest
resources/examples – drawing on a variety of sources (constantly
evolving).
To encourage learners to ‘think like a geographer’ by engaging them
with the enquiry process
Adopt the new thinking required by HE
To provide continuity from the existing specification(s) and enable the
re-use of some existing teaching materials, whilst introducing some
new areas of study
Key changes
• Contains five units, one of which is non-examined assessment
(NEA).
• Contains explicit reference to the assessment objectives
• Contains explicit reference to specialist overarching geography
concepts
• Requires more ‘stretch and challenge’ so some larger tariff
questions.
• Physical geography focus on process and landform rather than
human interaction
• HE has been influential in making human geography more
contemporary
Summary of AS Geography
Unit 1 – CORE
Changing Landscapes
Coastal or Glaciated
Unit 2 - CORE
Changing Places
Non-core: Tectonic Hazards
Fieldwork
Not submitted but examined
in Unit 2
exam paper only
AS Assessment structure
Unit 1 (AS)
Changing Landscapes
2 hours (96 marks)
24% weighting (GCE)
Unit 2 (AS)
Changing Places
1 hour 30 minutes (64 marks)
16% weighting (GCE)
Section A: either Coastal or Glaciated Section A: Changing places.
Landscapes.
Two compulsory structured
Two compulsory structured questions questions with data response
with data response
Section B: Fieldwork investigation
Section B: Tectonic Hazards.
in Physical and Human Geography
Three compulsory structured
Three compulsory structured
question with data response and two questions on fieldwork and the
extended response questions
learner’s own fieldwork
Summary of A2 Geography
Unit 3 - CORE
Unit 4 – NON CORE
Global Systems and Global
Contemporary Themes in
Governance
Geography
1. Water and Carbon
1. Tectonic Hazards
2. Migration and Oceans
2. Choice of four themes – two
to be selected
3. 21st Century Challenges
Unit 5
INDEPENDENT
INVESTIGATION
A2 Geography – Summary of assessment
Unit 3 (A2)
Unit 4 (A2)
Global Systems and Global Governance
2 hours (96 marks)
Contemporary Themes in Geography
2 hours (64 marks)
24% weighting (GCE)
16% weighting (GCE)
Section A - Global Systems, the Water and
Carbon Cycles.
Section A - Tectonic Hazards. Assessed through
one compulsory extended response question.
Section B - Global Governance, learners are
required to study processes and patterns of global
migration and global governance of the Earth’s
oceans.
Section B – Contemporary Themes in Geography
Chose two from four optional themes:
•Ecosystems
•Economic Growth and Challenge: India or China
or Development in an African Context
•Energy Challenges and Dilemmas
•Weather and Climate
Sections A and B are assessed through two
compulsory structured questions and one
extended response question.
Section C Century Challenges – One
compulsory extended response question, drawing
on Units 1, 2 and 3 with resource material
21st
Assessed through two essay questions chosen
from four optional themes
A2 Geography - Summary of assessment
Unit 5 (A2)
Independent Investigation (NEA)
20% weighting (GCE)
3000 – 4000 words
One written independent investigation,
based on the collection of both primary
and secondary information
Specialised concepts
Geography specification must enable students to:
• recognise and be able to analyse the complexity of people-environment
interactions at all geographical scales, and appreciate how these
underpin understanding of some of the key issues facing the world today
• develop their understanding of, and ability to apply, the concepts of
place, space, scale and environment, that underpin both the national
curriculum and GCSE, including developing a more nuanced
understanding of these concepts
• gain understanding of specialised concepts relevant to the core and
non-core content. These must include the concepts of causality, systems,
equilibrium, feedback, inequality, representation, identity, globalisation,
interdependence, mitigation and adaptation, sustainability, risk, resilience
and thresholds .
Specialised
concepts
Place.
Scale.
Systems and
feedback.
Risk. Resilience.
Thresholds,
Inequality, Identity
and representation
Mitigation and
adaptation,
Interdependence.
Sustainability
Causality
Over-arching concepts help students make geographical connections between very
different content areas: ‘thinking like a geographer’
Assessment objectives
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/418413/gce
-subject-level-guidance-for-geography.pdf
Assessment structure
AS
Unit 1
Unit 2
AO1
20.7%
13.8%
AO2
21.3%
14.2%
A2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
AO1
20%
10.3%
4%
AO2
15%
14.7%
8%
AO3
18%
12%
AO3
5%
2%
21%
Total
60%
40%
100%
Total
40%
27%
33%
100%
Assessment structure
A Level
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
AO1
8.3%
5.5%
12%
6%
2%
AO2
8.5%
5.7%
9%
9%
5%
AO3
7.2%
4.8%
3%
1%
13%
Total
24%
16%
24%
16%
20%
100%
AS Geography: Content
Changing Landscapes – Either Coastal or Glacial
1. Focus on geomorphic processes and landforms
2. Allows a range of scales to be studied
3. Human influence links specifically to process and
landform
4. Allows opportunities for fieldwork in first year
Changing Places
1. Range of places from urban to
rural
2. Characteristics of places and how
they are changing
3. Processes that are driving change
4. Issues that arise from change
5. Allows opportunities for fieldwork
in first year
AS Unit 1: Changing Landscapes
Either:
Coastal Landscapes
• The operation of the coast as a system
• Landforms and landscape systems, their distinctive features and
distribution
• Factors affecting coastal processes and landforms
• Processes of coastal weathering, mass movement, erosion,
transportation and deposition and the characteristics and
formation of associated landforms
• The impact of human activity on coastal landscape systems
AS Unit 1: Changing Landscapes
Or:
Glaciated Landscapes
• The operation of the glacier as a system
• Climate change and the glacier budget over different time scales
• Processes of glacial weathering, erosion and the characteristics
and formation of associated landforms
• Periglacial processes and the formation of associated features
• Glacial processes are a vital context for human activity
AS Unit 1:
Tectonic Hazards
• Tectonic processes and
hazards
• Volcanoes - processes,
hazards and their impacts
• Earthquakes - processes,
hazards and their impacts
• Human factors affecting
risk and vulnerability
• Responses to tectonic
hazards
AS Unit 2: Changing Places
• Changing place; changing places – relationships and connections
• Changes over time in the economic characteristics of places
• Economic change and social inequalities in de-industrialised
urban places
• The 21st Century knowledge economy (quaternary) and its social
and economic impacts
• Urban management and the challenges of continuity and change
(inc rebranding)
• Rural management and the challenges of continuity and change
(inc rebranding)
AS Unit 2: Changing Places
Ideas for teaching relationships, connections, meaning, representation
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Do I see the city as you do? Different views about the same place –
blog entry (compare and contrast)
My high street mood board. Compare and contrast with others in the
group. What differences and why?
Which best represents? Selection of photos from different parts of home
community – Ask people to select which best represents the place –
explain views
Interviews – select different age groups, gender socio-economic groups
etc. What patterns emerge?
Use blogs and messageboards to interrogate views on local places eg:
http://www.ilivehere.co.uk/ other useful sites include Trip Advisor or
MumsNet
RESOURCE FOR
TEACHERS & STUDENTS
http://www.geograph.org.uk/
RESOURCE FOR
TEACHERS & STUDENTS
New digital resource being
developed by WJEC
Supporting Changing
Places
http://distinctivelandscapes.org/en/distinctiv
e-landscapes-of-the-uk/
A2 – Unit 3: Global Systems
Water and Carbon Cycles
• Inputs, outputs, stores and flows in the water cycle
• Catchment hydrology – the drainage basin as a
system
• Precipitation and excess runoff within the water cycle
• Deficit within the water cycle
• The global carbon cycle
• Carbon stores in different biomes
• Links between the water and carbon cycles
A2 – Unit 3: Global Systems
Water and Carbon Cycles
Additional guidance from the RGS:
http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/School+Members+Area/School+Members+
Area.htm
Lots of useful online materials for example:
Carbon cycle role play
Lesson plan and Role play cards
Objectives.
Students will be able to:
• recognise that there is a finite amount of carbon on earth.
• model how carbon moves around in the environment, from one place to
another.
• identify how humans influence the carbon cycle.
A2 – Unit 3: Global Governance
Processes and patterns of global migration
• Globalisation, migration and a shrinking world
• Causes of international economic migration
• Consequences and management of international
economic migration
• Causes, consequences, and management of refugee
movements
• Causes, consequences, and management of ruralurban migration in developing countries
A2 – Unit 3: Global Governance
Earth’s oceans
• Global flows and governance - including people
trafficking and piracy
• Sovereignty of the ocean resources - including
geopolitical tensions and contested ownership, such as
Arctic Ocean resources
• Managing marine environments – exploitation and
sustainability
• Causes and consequences of ocean pollution
• Managing ocean pollution – including Arctic Ocean
conservation, or a UNESCO marine heritage site
A2 – Unit 4: Contemporary Themes in Geography
OPTIONS – Any two from the following:
1. Ecosystems
2. Economic Growth and Challenge: India or China or
Development in an African Context
3. Energy Challenges and Dilemmas
4. Weather and Climate
• Many existing learning resources
can be used
• Different contexts
• Enables study of regions
A2 – Unit 4: Contemporary Themes
Ecosystems
1. The value and distribution of ecosystems
2. The structure and functioning of
ecosystems
3. Biodiversity under threat
4. Conserving biodiversity
5. Ecosystems at a local scale
6. The Arctic tundra biome
7. Sustainable use of the Arctic tundra
biome
A2 – Unit 4: Contemporary Themes
Economic Growth and Challenge: India or China
1. The physical background of India or China
2. The demographic, social and cultural
characteristics of India or China
3. Opportunities and constraints of India’s or China’s
physical background
4. The economic and political background of India or
China
5. The global importance of India or China
6. Threats to the environment associated with
economic growth
7. Sustainable development in India or China
A2 – Unit 4: Contemporary Themes
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
1. Definitions, measures and patterns of
development
2. The influence of physical factors on development
3. The influence of economic factors on development
4. The influence of political, social and cultural
factors on development
5. The impact of development on the environment
6. Challenges of desertification
7. Strategies to promote development
A2 – Unit 4: Contemporary Themes
Energy Challenges and Dilemmas
1. The classification and distribution of
energy resources
2. Physical factors determining the supply
of energy
3. The changing demand for energy
4. The global management of oil and gas
5. Problems associated with extraction,
transport and use of energy
6. Energy mixes and development
7. The need for sustainable solutions to
meet the demand for energy
A2 – Unit 4: Contemporary Themes
Weather and Climate
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2.
3.
4.
5.
Global controls on climate
World’s major climate types
Climate and weather of the UK
Extreme weather events
Impacts and management of climatic
hazards
6. Impacts of human activities on the
atmosphere at local and regional scales
7. People, climate and the future
Workshop and Discussion
Opportunities and Challenges
•Which elements do you feel confident about?
•Which elements will you need to do more
preparation for?