Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
problems, which provide students with direct experience in their local area. To include
social issues at all education levels, even though content is on national, multinational, and
international scales, community problems must be actively adopted in teaching materials
as illustrative examples of societal issues, or as objects for comparison.
8
Not all geographic learning can be subsumed within social participation.
For example, there are restrictions on the number of instruction hours, and opportu-
nities are limited for children to fully engage in social participation learning.
9.6
Conclusion: Strategies for Instructional Design
To implement social participation learning in practice, improvements to the learning
environment are indispensable (e.g., ensuring suffi cient instructional hours, creat-
ing receptivity and networking in the local area, building a relationship of trust
between the school and local community, and others). However, the reality of
Japanese education makes success diffi cult to predict. Social participation learning
is necessary for students to grow into self-suffi cient citizens as they face societal
problems. In conclusion, the author outline two important points from the perspec-
tive of instructional design for putting social participation learning into practice in
the school system.
The fi rst point is that children's awareness of society and development of their
abilities as citizens are shaped by interaction with adults and people with various
perspectives. Because of changes in society, such as the trend towards nuclear
families, changes of industrial structure, and the loss of communal bonds, children
grow into adults without awareness of a variety of values. As a result, children's
views and thinking about society tend to be narrow and one-dimensional. Social
participation learning provides children with a collaborative experience, in which
they learn together and with adults from the local area. Those adults are citizens
with varying occupations and values. An authentic learning experience may be
critical for shaping students' awareness of society and nurturing their abilities as
citizens (Hiroishi
2003
).
The second point is to establish learning opportunities that are not fl eeting
involvements, but grounded in established and continuing committed partnerships.
Current teaching practices of social participation learning involve one-time episodic
events. However, community problems require solutions developed over time with
committed dialog among members and related stakeholders. Thus, it is necessary to
establish an exchange between people in the local community for extended periods,
for example by linking to the course Period for Integrated Study.
8
Because of space limitations, it is not possible to present details of the curriculum. The author
hope to present specifi c proposals in another paper. Related to the proposals for the composition of
a geography curriculum based on thematic learning, research fi ndings of the Geography Education
Creative Research Association have been made public (
Ō
no
2009
).
