Subject based curriculum

1. A subject based curriculum

2. • Why should subjects be taught?
• What is Geography, History, Physical Science, Mathematics, Biology,
etc.?

3. What is Geography?
A discipline concerned with making order and meaning of the
experiential world through observing, classifying and explaining
phenomena.

4. • The first step to uncover order and meaning is to observe and
describe the experiential world through a technical lexis.
• Technical lexis refers to terminology in a subject.
• The technical terms are either unique to the field (mesas and buttes)
• Borrowed from other fields ( condensation and transpiration)
• Or drawn from vernacular or everyday terms (weather)

5. Classifying and naming phenomena
The structure of geographical knowledge is that it is made up of many
taxonomies.
A taxonomy
Is an ordered, systematic classification of some phenomena based on
the fundamental principles of superordination (type of or kind of
something) or composition (part of something else) Wignell 1993.

6. An example of superordination
• Rocks are classified according to their origin. There are 3 types of
rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic

7. An example of composition
• Igneous rocks forms when molten rock cools and hardens

8. Vernacular taxonomies are either specialized
or everyday
• Everyday taxonomy of weather - Cold, windy, cloudy, etc.
Specialised and formal definition of weather:
• Weather refers to the state of the atmosphere at a local level for a
short period of time

9. Explain how phenomena came to be through
implication sequences
• Technical terms are introduced and defined through an identifying
relational clause eg. Weather (technical term) is the state of the
atmosphere at a local level for a short period of time