Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Current Status and Issues in Senior
High School Geography Education
Toshio Asakawa
Abstract
Patterns of enrollment and learning content in senior high school geography
education have changed since the new postwar system was launched. Not all senior
high school students are necessarily currently studying geography. In the new elective
subject entitled Geography A, they study geographic characteristics, problems
of the contemporary world, and geographic issues in the living environment. In
Geography B, students study a variety of maps and learn geographic skills, system-
atic geographic topics, and descriptive geography in the contemporary world.
Keywords
Geography education Learning content Pattern of enrollment Senior
high school
4.1
Changes in the Pattern of Enrollment
and Learning Content
Unlike at the elementary and junior high school levels, not all senior high school
students are necessarily studying geography. The pattern of geography-related sub-
ject enrollment within the senior high school curriculum has changed three times
since the post-war education system was launched in April, 1948. During the fi rst
15-year period, “Human Geography” was established as a geography-related subject;
it was an elective subject together with History- and Civics-related courses. For a
20-year period beginning in 1963, Human Geography was divided into two subjects,
entitled Geography A and Geography B, and it was compulsory for students to
enroll in one or the other. In the early implementation of these two courses, they
were different insofar as the number of instruction hours. However, from 1973
onward, as described below, the learning content also differed. From 1982 to the
present, having unifi ed systematic geography and descriptive geography into a
single subject simply called “Geography,” the existing courses Geography A and
