Aims & Objectives

Course Aims

• Encourage the systematic and critical study of: human experience and behaviour; physical, economic and social environments; and the history and development of social and cultural institutions

• Develop in the student the capacity to identify, to analyse critically and to evaluate theories, concepts and arguments about the nature and activities of the individual and society

• Enable the student to collect, describe and analyse data used in studies of society, to test hypotheses, and to interpret complex data and source material

• Promote the appreciation of the way in which learning is relevant both to the culture in which the student lives, and the culture of other societies

• Develop an awareness in the student that human attitudes and beliefs are widely diverse and that the study of society requires an appreciation of such diversity

• Enable the student to recognize that the content and methodologies of the individuals and societies subjects are contestable and that their study requires the toleration of uncertainty

• Develop an understanding of the dynamic interrelationships between people, places, spaces and the environment at different scales

• Develop a critical awareness and consider complexity thinking in the context of the nexus of geographic issues, including: acquiring an in-depth understanding of how geographic issues, or wicked problems, have been shaped by powerful human and physical processes; synthesizing diverse geographic knowledge in order to form viewpoints about how these issues could be resolved

• Understand and evaluate the need for planning and sustainable development through the management of resources at varying scales.

Assessment Objectives

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of specified content

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the core theme - global change

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of two optional themes at SL and three optional themes at HL

• at HL only, demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the HL extension—global interactions

• in internal assessment, demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a specific geographic research topic

Demonstrate application and analysis of knowledge and understanding

• apply and analyse geographic concepts and theories

• identify and interpret geographic patterns and processes in unfamiliar information, data and cartographic material

• demonstrate the extent to which theories and concepts are recognised and understood in particular contexts

Demonstrate synthesis and evaluation

• examine and evaluate geographic concepts, theories and perceptions

• use geographic concepts and examples to formulate and present an argument

• evaluate materials using methodology appropriate for geographic fieldwork

• at HL only, demonstrate synthesis and evaluation of the HL extension—global interactions

Select, use and apply a variety of appropriate skills and techniques

• select, use and apply the prescribed geographic skills in appropriate contexts

• produce well-structured written material, using appropriate terminology

• select, use and apply techniques and skills appropriate to a geographic research question