Geography Education in Singapore

Abstract

AbstractGeography has been one of the core humanities subjects in schools in Singapore. It has undergone several national curriculum reviews through over six decades. School geography started with the regional approach in the 1960s where the curriculum focused on pure description of the physical and human geographies within specific countries. This lead to much rote memorization of facts in the examinations. Regional geography was then replaced by the systematic approach in the 1980s which placed great emphasis on conceptual teaching and learning. Teaching became less of dissemination of facts and more of connecting concepts and generalizations. In 2013, there was yet another significant geography curriculum change which puts emphasis on the inquiry-based approach to the teaching and learning in order to provide students with deeper and critical understanding of the changing world and help prepare them for the complexities of the world. Geographical inquiry even extends beyond the classrooms into the field and students are required to collect data and investigate authentic geographical issues. This chapter will provide a discussion on these critical changes to the geography curriculum particularly in terms of the geography content, pedagogy and assessment.KeywordsSecondary geographyGeography syllabusRegional and systematic geographyGeography assessmentGeographical inquiry