Guide to Teaching Geography for Achieving Analytical Thinking Skills Among Secondary School Students

Abstract

Geography is a discipline which has witnessed evolution in purpose, content, method of study and application of knowledge, being a reflection of the changing philosophy and thought of scholars of different periods of time. Geography during the ancient, mediaeval and even the pre-modern periods was largely concerned with the description of places, discoveries of geographical phenomena and drawing of route and place maps. Modern geography’s foundation was built on Darwin’s theory of evolution, which idea was applied to human society. Consequently such concepts as anthropogeography, social Darwinism, political geography, agricultural geography, economic geography, medical geography, environmental determinism, cultural determinism, applied geography, electoral geography, behavioural geography and quantitative geography, just to mention a few, have emerged as themes of study in the discipline. Hence, geography today is no longer a passive science of description of places on the earth’s surface, but an active scientific study immersed in finding solutions to a plethora of human problems. The solution to human problems are only achievable through active teaching of the subject using apposite instructional methods, curriculum contents and objectives, instructional materials and methods of evaluation for teaching and learning. This paper therefore discusses the relevance of some active methods in the context of students’ thinking process, particularly higher-order thinking skills, with specific focus on analytical thinking skills. The paper proposes experiential spatial problem based learning (ESPBL) as an instructional model for the teaching of geography at the secondary school level of learning as a means of enhancing analytical thinking skills of students. The author believed that this has the potential for actualizing the objective of geography education in the twenty-first century, which aims is to achieve the sustainable development goal.