THE NEW GEOGRAPHY

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This article aimed to examine the present situation and tasks of the curriculum of competency-based geographic education through the analysis of Portuguese cases in which traditional content-based curriculum was replaced by competency-based curriculum at the beginning of the century. In Portugal there was an attempt to change direction of geography curriculum to the one that emphasizes competency centering on National Curriculum in 2001. Yet, National Curriculum failed to gain a foothold and expired in 2011, then Goal of Curriculum showing the concrete content of learning was made public in 2013. There are following reasons why this reversal to knowledge-oriented curriculum occurred: (1) National Curriculum requires geography teachers to create lesson plans with consideration of requirements of schools and students, but it was difficult for many of them to understand National Curriculum and create lesson plans because they did not have prior experience on them; (2) Learning content was downplayed on competency-oriented curriculum, so that it was not detailed enough. It was clearly written in Goal of Curriculum for remedying it, but it was mainly about factual knowledge without showing conceptual knowledge leading to the development of competency; and (3) It was difficult to evaluate students’ competency by relying on written tests, therefore, other methods for evaluation, such as performance evaluation, was necessary. Yet, there was little description of it in National Curriculum, making it difficult for geography teachers to understand it. The Ministry of Education announced Essential Learning in 2018. Its goal is to develop students’ competency of knowledge, skills, and attitudes although it is not yet evaluated.The New Course of Study in Japan also aims to develop it, but its importance has been less wellunderstood among geography teachers, failing to sufficiently discuss various problems clarified through the analysis of Portuguese cases. The transition to competency-based curriculum must, however, be an important turning point for reexamining conventional learning content and learning methods and breaking away from knowledge-oriented teaching. It is necessary to engage actively in these tasks for improving geography education.

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