Abstract
Tasks are crucial for gaining access to powerful knowledge in geography and for fostering higher-order thinking in lessons; therefore, they are key to subject-specific pedagogy. After analysing tasks in geography textbooks for upper secondary education, it was revealed that higher-order thinking barely occurs in textbooks in the Netherlands and is more frequent in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Subsequently, both curriculum contexts were systematically compared to determine factors that influence the use of tasks. The results show that evaluative rules play a crucial role. The assessment in North Rhine-Westphalia focuses on higher-order thinking and how this becomes visible in students’ work. Dutch assessment concentrates on students handling an outlined body of knowledge in defined settings. This raises questions of epistemic access, as students are less prepared for the skills expected at university level. Finally, we observed the importance of alignment between official institutions, the discipline of subject-specific pedagogy and support for teachers when it comes to fostering higher-order thinking in geography education.
Highlights
Tasks are a powerful tool for geography teachers, as they enable students to engage with the subject (Kleinknecht, 2010)
We focus on how a different recontextualisation process and curriculum discourse are shaping the curriculum contexts, which might explain differences between the attention to specific cognitive processes fostered by geography tasks
Via curriculum aims and assessment, recognition and realisation rules focus on the achievement of higher-order thinking and the production of legitimate texts in propaedeutic terms, which is an important aspect of powerful knowledge
Summary
Tasks are a powerful tool for geography teachers, as they enable students to engage with the subject (Kleinknecht, 2010). One of the criteria that tasks should fulfil in geography lessons is the development of competences (Krause et al, 2021b). A distinction often made in this respect is between lower- and higher-order thinking. Higher-order thinking tasks foster these learning processes because they invite students to integrate complex information into existing knowledge structures. Students develop a conceptual understanding of the subject, which enables them to judge information critically and to participate in public debates, giving them, in other words, access to powerful knowledge (Béneker, 2018; Maude and Caldis, 2019)
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