Abstract
South Africa has had four school curriculum changes in the post-apartheid era. The latest change occurred in 2011 when the National Curriculum Statements (NCS) were replaced by the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). In both of these geography in the lower grades (grades 4–9) forms part of natural sciences and social sciences. In the Further Education and Training band (grades 10–12) geography is one of the elective subjects. The learning outcomes and assessment standards of the NCS for geography stated the learning progressions (LP) expected in the different grades. However, the emphasis in the new CAPS learning progression for geography (social science and natural science) is primarily on topic and content. The Department of Education recommended in the geography CAPS that different cognitive levels be used in the Further Education Training (FET) band. Hence greater responsibility is placed on geography teachers to ensure that LP takes place in various grades during the different phases of geography (social sciences and natural sciences) in the school curriculum. It is therefore necessary to make recommendations and give both geography student teachers and practicing teachers’ guidelines on how to ensure LP in the geography school curriculum.
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Golightly, A., van der Westhuizen, C.P. (2017). South Africa. In: Muñiz Solari, O., Solem, M., Boehm, R. (eds) Learning Progressions in Geography Education. International Perspectives on Geographical Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44717-9_9
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