Having a geographically literate population will be critical to the economic stability, physical security, and environmental sustainability of the United States in the 21st century. Yet the U.S. still lags far behind the other developed nations in education in the geographical sciences. Recognizing the risk that geographic illiteracy poses for our country, the National Geographic Society (NGS), in collaboration with the Association of American Geographers, American Geographical Society, and National Council for Geographic Education, proposes to engage in a set of research synthesis and dissemination activities that will provide road maps for the design of assessment, professional development, instructional materials, public information, and educational research for the next decade. The work will be done by a broad range of experts from K-12 institutions as well as the geographical science and educational research communities
Building on a 25 year collaboration, NGS and its partners propose to engage in a community-wide effort to synthesize the literature from a broad range of fields and to use the findings to create frameworks that will guide the planning, implementation, and scale-up of efforts to improve geographic education over the next decade. The result of this effort will be a set of publicly reviewed, consensus reports that will guide the collaborative efforts of the project partners and the larger geographic education community, as well as broaden awareness of the increasingly significant and acute need for geographic literacy and education in the geographical sciences in our country.
This project will create three in-depth "roadmap" reports targeted at practitioners, takeholders, and policymakers. Developed by expert committees, these three reports will be on:
- Assessment frameworks for systematic monitoring and continuous improvement of geographic education programs. - Professional development for teachers and instructional materials to support large-scale educational improvement across diverse contexts. - Educational research agenda to set priorities and identify appropriate methodologies for research that will improve geographic education into the future.
These three reports will be summarized in an executive summary written for a broad audience of educators, policymakers, and concerned citizens. In addition to these consensus reports, the project will also conduct research on public understanding of the nature and importance of geographic literacy, with particular attention to the key audiences of educators, policymakers, and citizens. In addition to shaping the project's reports, this research will inform the broader communications and dissemination efforts of this project and its partners.
In response to a critical need to increase geographic literacy in the United States, the National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, the National Council for Geographic Education, and the American Geographical Society evaluated the current state of geography education and drafted a strategic plan for improvement over the next decade. The four organizations convened leaders in the fields of geography, educational practice, and educational research to develop A Road Map for 21st Century Geographic Education, a set of three reports with recommendations to educators, policy makers, researchers, and funders regarding critical priorities for improving professional development, instructional materials, assessment, and education research. The reports highlight the highest priorities for geography education reform and chart a course for educators, framework and materials developers, researchers, policy makers and funders for addressing those priorities over the next decade. The Instructional Materials and Professional Development Report describes a need to engage students with the big ideas and skills critical to geography and to prepare educators to use these materials with the best instructional practices. The Assessment Report describes a need for high-quality assessments designed to inform decision making for individuals as well as across educational systems. The Geography Education Research Report outlines a need for strategic research programs designed to explore the best practices for teaching and learning geographic knowledge and skills. The reports each include a detailed set of recommendations for addressing those needs. The Instructional Materials and Professional Development Report describes how geography teaching and learning can be improved through the development of instructional materials that teach the big ideas and practices of geography, the use strategies that build on student knowledge, and the engagement of all types of learners in meaningful explorations of geography. This report also outlines how that improvement of supports for teachers can be accomplished by creating geography instructional materials that include learning tools for teachers, offering professional development with clear and measurable goals, preparing teachers to teach geography across different subjects and grade levels, and by beginning this training in teacher preparation programs. In addition, the report suggests areas of funding for research and evaluation, opportunities for authentic collaboration, and the development and dissemination of tools and exemplars recommended for broad improvement of geography teaching and learning. The Assessment Report explains that development of high quality assessments designed to inform decision making about students, materials, and programs requires that the goals of the assessments are clearly outlined in a framework. The report includes a general framework, the 21st Century Assessment Framework for the Geographical Sciences (AFGS21), to guide the construction of frameworks that target specific assessment purposes. The report recommends that development of certain frameworks targeted to topics of broad applicability and high need should be prioritized so they can be leveraged across multiple improvement efforts. The report also recommends that AFGS21 should be used to create high quality instruments that evaluate the status of geography literacy and inform broad decisions about geography education state and national policymakers, and that there should be investment in training and professional development for teachers and policy makers to support their decision making using assessments. The Geography Education Research Report asserts that efforts to improve teaching and learning in geography education requires an increase in focus, coordination, and rigor. This report highlights the areas of research that will be most effective in improving geography education at a large scale, including aligning research activities around a set of key research questions established by the Road Map Research Committee. These questions focus on how geographic knowledge, skills, and practices develop across individuals, grades, settings, and different elements of geography. The research report also outlines strategies and methodologies that could maximize the impact of research activities. These include situating research in a problem context, focusing on the core ideas and practices of geography, and drawing on foundational research from related disciplines. Each report was authored by a committee selected for their expertise in areas relevant to the topic of that report, and each report went through an extensive review process that included internal review, review by experts nominated by outside organizations, and an open public review. The report findings have been disseminated through presentations at the annual meetings of the participating organizations, as well as presentations and publications in other forums. The reports, their executive summaries, and an executive overview are all being distributed at no charge via the National Geographic Society website at http://natgeoed.org/roadmap.
