How to link geography, cross-curricular approach and inquiry in science education at the primary schools

ABSTRACT

Pupil research in school lessons in the sense of Inquiry-Based Education (IBE) is one of the constructivist approaches to education. Inquiry strengthens the positive approach of pupils to natural science subjects, encouraging them to study phenomena and processes taking place in the natural environment around them and use the acquired knowledge in their practical life. Geography as a school subject, due to the multidisciplinary nature of geography as a science, is close to natural sciences as well. This is because of the broadness of the subject of geographical studies, the complex (natural and cultural) landscape. The close links of geography to all cross-sectional themes make it a good support for teaching classical science subjects at schools such as mathematics, physics, chemistry or biology, environmental education. Moreover, the field teaching is one of the strong assets of the implementation of IBE in the school geography. Presented case study on the ‘effect of noise on the surroundings’ explores the facts mentioned above, in geography teaching. It verifies the pupils’ knowledge and skills to adopt the basic principles of IBE in the practice. At the same time, it presents the concrete experiences how the children master the individual stages of IBE during the process of education.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching physical geography
• Inquiry-Based Education
• geography fieldwork
• cross-curricular links
• primary school

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Dagmar Popjaková http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0060-9110

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Grant Agency of the University of South Bohemia under Grant 160/2016/S and by the Czech Science Foundation under Grant 16-00695S.