Developing adolescents' geographical thinking and understanding

Abstract

Burgeoning education policies claim that schools should prepare their students with skills for the twenty-first century, and development of critical thinking is central to this argument. This chapter provides an overview of successful thinking programs in geography and argues that it is vital to develop young people's metacognitive capacity. Using thinking strategies has the dual benefit of increasing students' enthusiasm for learning and improving their learning outcomes (van der Schee, Leat & Vankan, 2006). However, an important caveat applies, which is that learning gains are dependent on the skill of the teacher, particularly in debriefing. By developing thinking skills, students are bet..