Learning Progressions, Paradigms, and Geographic Thinking in the Anthropocene

Year 2019, Volume: 9 Issue: 3, 542 - 556, 31.12.2019

Thomas Larsen , John Harrington, Jr.

https://doi.org/10.33403/rigeo.561562

Abstract

Learning
progression research has the capability to connect thinking in the education
sciences and geography.  Learning
progressions provide a map of the various pathways that students take to master
a topic.  The aim of this paper is to
illustrate significant conceptual ties between learning progressions and disciplinary
geography.  Two construct paradigms overlap
to form an entryway between educational and geographic thought: constructivism from
education and possibilism within geography. 
The learning progression method can form a bridge between the two
paradigms.  Learning progression research
in geography depends on being able to answer two questions.  First, which geographic concepts should be
tracked?  Given the ongoing changes in
global human-environmental systems, priority could be dedicated to the topics
that stimulate synthesis thinking about the human-environment relationship in
the Anthropocene, or “Age of Humans.”  Second,
how should geographers track advancement in learning about human-environment concepts?  Learning progression research provides a
method to document multiple aspects of advancement in student learning.  But, geographic learning does not exist solely
in the confines of the classroom. 
Furthermore, school districts vary in the amount and quality of
geography that they allow.  New
understandings would come from a mixed-methods approach that addresses
geographic understandings by the lifelong learner in the context of both formal
and informal geography education.

Keywords

Learning Progressions, Paradigms, Geographic Thought, Constructivism, Possiblism, Anthropocene

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