Unit structure of “Regional Geography Study of Japan” and “Regional Issue” with an awareness of context and concept

Abstract

In order to deepen the study of the concept of "the state of the region" newly established in the Courses of Study announced in 2017, it is necessary to cultivate the ability to identify regional issues in the process of learning geography in the "Regions of Japan," which is the first stage of the study, and to gain knowledge of regions that could be examples of regional revitalization under similar circumstances to those of the regions to be studied in "the state of the region. It is also necessary to gain knowledge of regions that can be used as examples of revitalizing regions under similar circumstances as the regions studied in the "How a region should be" section. Therefore, we designed the unit based on the concept of what we wanted the students to consider and conceptualize in the "How Regions Should Be" unit, and then, from there, we designed the unit in the opposite direction, asking the questions that would run through each region (unit) of the "Regions of Japan" unit. In doing so, we were conscious of the relationship between the core ways of thinking and related events, and examined which core ways of thinking should be applied to which regions in order to draw out regional characteristics and local issues in an attractive manner, to be most effective in achieving the concept, and to deepen students' learning. We also examined the order in which the core issues were discussed, and decided to focus on the "how" questions in the first half of the "Regions of Japan" section, such as the natural environment, and gradually increase the number of "why" questions so that students can notice multifaceted connections with other phenomena in the process of pursuing the issues. In this way, we have taken into consideration the ease of understanding and the ability of students to analyze and think about the regions in a multilayered manner. In addition to the "how" and "why" questions, we also used the question "what would be a better region" to encourage students to think about a better region in order to integrate the two units, "The Regions of Japan" and "How Regions Should Be".