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24 January 2024
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‘Learners… need to use maps, GIS and atlases to identify, plot and represent features, and to examine spatial decision-making by people (including themselves and their families) and organisations.’
Rawling, 2022
Mapping and the use of GIS in the ‘Getting Our Bearings’ Ofsted report
Although Geographic information systems (GIS) have been in the National Curriculum since 2008, the recent ‘Getting Our Bearings’ Ofsted report highlighted significant concerns about the extent to which the incorporation of GIS has happened. Unfortunately, the report found that ‘GIS continued to be an area of the national curriculum that was rarely being taught in schools.’
The reasons for this are complex, but some explanations are offered: ‘When asked why GIS was not being used more widely, leaders tended to point to time constraints, a lack of access to computers and/or a lack of training. Another reason was the perceived complexity of GIS software.’ (Ofsted 2023).
Feelings of déjà vu would not be unreasonable! Almost two decades ago, the findings of a GA report were uncannily similar: ‘Already over-stretched teachers… are unlikely to embrace GIS without a considerable amount of professional development and sustained infrastructural support.’ (Fargher 2006)
The importance of GIS
The importance of GIS continues to be emphasised by the GA: ‘learners… need to use maps, GIS and atlases to identify, plot and represent features, and to examine spatial decision-making by people (including themselves and their families) and organisations.’ (Rawling 2022)
On a positive note, the ‘Getting Our Bearings’ report found that ‘Where GIS software was used well, leaders focused on simple methods for pupils to plot data on a map and use different layers of data to reach conclusions about the spatial distribution of different phenomena.’
Models of effective practice across all key stages need to be shared more widely, such as primary hyperlocal fieldwork (Conway 2022) or local and coastal topics (Grasmeder 2020).
Things to consider when teaching GIS
In the initial phase of GIS development in schools, there may have been too much emphasis on procedural aspects without proper development of a holistic pedagogy.
Instead, GIS needs to be placed in a in a wider context, so that teachers think carefully about their pedagogical intent (know-what, know-how, know-why) as recommended by Hamill (2021) and ways that the teaching of GIS meshes with evidence-led pedagogies (GI Pedagogy Teaching Model, 2022).
A general impediment to curriculum progression raised by the ‘Getting Our Bearings’ report can be a tendency to teach knowledge and skills in a detached way. Even where GIS is being taught, it can be afflicted by this issue, sometimes referred to as ‘silos’ (Enser 2021).
Consequently, there have been increasing calls from classroom teachers to find ways to make GIS ‘part of the furniture’ (Conway and Freeman 2023).
It is encouraging that steps have been taken to support teachers towards curriculum integration of GIS in a sequenced and coherent way (Hickman 2021, quoting Zwartes et al 2017), but there is a lot more work to be done in this area.
GIS CPD focus towards leaders
In the last few years, there have been many valiant attempts to focus CPD about GIS on novice teachers, but these have often been insufficient for trainees to gain fluency and such emphasis may even have been misplaced.
In this context, a particularly interesting point made in the ‘Getting Our Bearings’ report was that lack of access to appropriate IT facilities for GIS ‘was not the main barrier to using it’. Rather, it was observed that ‘leaders sometimes have gaps in their own knowledge of areas such as … GIS’, which constitute ‘a major barrier to improvement.’
Therefore, it may be essential that future GIS CPD pivots its focus towards leaders. Commensurate with approaches used in Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) (National Institute of Teaching 2023), models of ‘what good GIS teaching looks like’ can become an integral part of CPD, including substantial follow-up coaching and mentoring at school level.
The Geospatial Commission strategy
The Geospatial Commission’s strategy emphasises the essential role of GIS education, warning that ‘The UK cannot realise the value from geospatial applications without an appropriately skilled workforce…The pipeline of geospatial skilled individuals will depend on schools, further education and continuing professional development’ with six partner bodies who ‘play a key role in delivering this strategy’.
‘However, none of them have any direct role in education, so a review of this situation would be timely’ (Geospatial Commission 2020; 2023).
Support from subject associations and bodies in GIS
Alongside their partners across the sector, the GA is already helping to map out effective responses, as the ‘Getting Our Bearings’ report recognises: ‘Leaders who were members of subject associations and bodies reported finding them useful. This was especially true when they were redesigning their curriculum or looking at examples of strong practice in geography education.’
Helpful resources
Useful resources for helping you to integrate GIS into your teaching:
GeogPod (2021) Episode #33: Interview with Alistair Hamill by John Lyon – Using GIS to bring divided communities together, plate tectonics and photography (Geographical Association)
Conway, B (2022) ‘What’s the coolest place in school?’ Webmap created in ArcGIS Online, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School Epsom, Surrey
GA Special Interest Group for ICT (2024) Regular shared ideas and resources on @gasigict and (2022) Digital Mapping Resources
References
Ofsted (2023) ‘Research and analysis: Getting our bearings: geography subject report’.
Fargher, M. (2006) Linking lessons learnt from the Spatially Speaking project with research findings on pedagogies with GIS (Geographical Association)
Rawling, Eleanor. (2022) ‘A framework for the school geography curriculum’ Geographical Association.
Grasmeder, A. (2020) ‘Collaborating through GIS.’ Primary Geography, Spring 2020. Geographical Association.
GI Pedagogy Toolkit (2022) GI Pedagogy Toolkit of Innovative Pedagogical Approaches for Teaching with GIS, including the GI Pedagogy Framework and Model (IO2). Ghent University, Belgium.
Enser, M. (2021) ‘Why curriculum sequencing is like baking sourdough: Curriculum sequencing helps to avoid teaching topics in silos – and here’s how to do it’ TES Magazine 19th November 2021.
Conway, B. and Freeman, D. (2023) ‘Part of the furniture’: working together to embed GIS, Geographical Association Annual Conference 2023: Collaborative Geographies, 13 – 15 April 2023, Sheffield Hallam University.
Hickman, James (2021) ‘Developing and assessing students’ spatial thinking skills when using GIS’ Teaching Geography Autumn 2021
Zwartjes, L., de Lázaro, M.L., Donert, K., Sánchez, I.B., De Miguel González, R. and Wołoszy ska-Winiewska, E. (2017) GI Learner: Literature Review on Spatial Thinking.
National Institute of Teaching (2023) What is Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP).
Geospatial Commission (2020) Unlocking the power of location: The UK’s geospatial strategy.
Geospatial Commission (2023) UK Geospatial Strategy 2030: Unlocking the power of location.
Frontier Economics (2020) Demand for Geospatial Skills – Report for the Geospatial Commission. Geospatial Commission.
The Getting our bearings series
The Getting our bearings blog series is a collection of posts which signpost GA support for some of the themes which were flagged in the recent Ofsted geography subject report and which have also come through strongly in our work with teachers.
Blog posts available in this series:
Getting our bearings: Setting our direction of travel
Navigating a path through geography CPD
Developing procedural knowledge to facilitate progression in fieldwork
The rationale, scope and sequencing of schemes of work
The role of formative assessment in raising standards
This article was written by the GA ICTSIG – Brendan Conway with Alastair Hamill, Bob Lang, Jo Meredith, Heidi Quenby, Kit Marie Rackley, Kate Russell and Sophie Wilson
© Brendan Conway, Alastair Hamill, Bob Lang, Jo Meredith, Heidi Quenby, Kit Marie Rackley, Kate Russell, Sophie Wilson, and the Geographical Association, 2024
