Geography – Population Pyramids
Geography – Population Pyramids II
In order to support students’ skills in geoliteracy, teachers need to clarify the three main components of geographic reasoning. One excellent way of effectively teaching the skills of geographic reasoning is to establish a problem that affects a particular society or the globe as a whole and encourage the students to find a solution to such a problem so that they may be able to see how that problem or issue is significant.
The three main components of geographic reasoning are interactions, interconnections, and implications. Interactions tell us how the world work; interconnections tell us how the world is connected; implications tell us what the significance of the aforementioned interactions and interconnections are.
I intend on creating a series of lessons that critically evaluate the demographics of China based on the effects of the One-Child Policy that began in the 1980s and still exists today. This lesson is meant to teach students how to read population pyramids and critically explain the interactions, interconnections and implications of the trends. In this case, the interactions are that younger Chinese people are having to take care of their parents alone, without the aid of siblings. The interconnections are the strains and problems that the economy will face as a result of the burden being placed on the younger generation. The implications are the major economic problems that China will face in coming decades and their consequences on the world economy.
The lesson demands that students understand population pyramids and interpret the data of China’s population pyramids for the current year and 2030. The lesson problematizes the ideas of the population pyramids by guiding students to answer critical questions on China’s future. The lesson also calls for students to consider how they should solve the issues that plague China’s economic growth.
The following lesson will give students more time to complete the directives on how to solve the population issue. After groups are finished, they will do a gallery walk and check out other groups’ policies so that they can evaluate on how to make the policies better. The groups will then reconvene and choose the best piece of advice from ONE group and implement it.