Teaching Conceptually in the New LSG Syllabus

About us

Following the launch of the new 2021 lower secondary Geography syllabuses, a new NLC was formed for interested teachers to come together to design effective lessons aligned to the syllabus intent.

We had four meetings since our first meeting on 28 Apr 2021, starting with a group of 15 teachers facilitated by Mr Mohamed Tafran Angullia from Hai Sing Catholic School and Lead Teachers Mrs Grace Bok, Dunman High School, and Mr Edwin Chew, Regent Sec School. We were thankful to have the support of Ms Noraidah Rahim, CPDD Geography Curriculum Planning Officer.

As the syllabus was new to all, the aim of the NLC was to support teachers in designing the enacted curriculum through the curriculum making process, and to explore effective strategies for pedagogy and assessment.

Our Meetings

01 Meeting

At the first meeting, we had a discussion on three topics in the syllabus in three breakout rooms. This was followed by a sharing by Tafran and Eliora from Hai Sing Catholic on their team’s GI package on Sungei Api-Api, based on the guiding question “What relationships does Pasir Ris mangroves have with the environment and people?”

02 Meeting

At Meeting #2, Ms Jayanthi Appachamy of Bukit Batok Secondary School shared on the use of Paul’s Elements of Thought (popularly known as the Wheel of Reasoning) and Intellectual Standards in guiding students’ thinking in the learning of Geography to develop critical thinkers. There was also cross-learning from the East Zone NLC through watching a video-recorded explanation by Ms Oh Ee-Laine on the use of Big T and inverted T templates from the book by McTighe and Silver [McTighe, J. & Silver, H. F. (2020). Teaching for deeper learning: Tools to engage students in meaning making. Alexandria, VA: ASCD].

03 Meeting

Meeting #3, held in Oct 2021, was a platform for the members to look back at the first year of implementation of the lower sec Geography syllabuses. Noraidah shared some useful resources available in the CPDD Geography Wiki. One of the intents of the 2021 LSG syllabus is greater teacher autonomy through the flexibility in the areas of content and design of learning resources and assessment activities. She highlighted the overarching aim of a ‘school-based Geography’ which emphasized on a learner-centred curriculum which may look different across schools. She shared that teachers’ innovation could come in various forms which may include (but not limited to) the selection of current and relevant case studies and the assessment levels which suit their learners. She stressed that while pace may vary in LSG, the prescribed content and skills should be covered before students enter Secondary 3 so as to ensure students’ readiness for the USG syllabus. Members shared their use of strategies in formative assessment including effective use of questioning and rubrics to enhance and scaffold students’ critical thinking skills. Puay Yin introduced Chapter 7 of the book Blended Learning in Action by Caitlin Tucker et al. and focused the meeting on distilling the guiding principles of good formative assessments. She also encouraged the members to refer to Paul’s Intellectual Standards and Wiggins and McTighe’s Six Facets of Understanding to craft success criteria and rubrics for performance tasks.

04 Meeting

At Meeting #4, held in early 2022, Puay Yin did a refresher on unit planning (From the AST course Translating Concepts in Sustainability for LSG). This was followed by a sharing by Ms Wendy Arleena Sukma, ST/Geography, St Anthony’s Canossian Secondary School on Differentiated Instruction. Ms Lily Teo from Edgefield Secondary School and Ms Eliora Neo from Hai Sing Catholic also shared their packages on Water GI and Transport respectively. Puay Yin encouraged the NLC to continue to design for learning experiences that will strengthen students’ conceptual thinking and deep learning in the subject.

Contact person:

Mdm Lim Puay Yin, Master Teacher

Email:

lim_puay_yin@moe.edu.sg