This Substack examines the concept of synopticity in A level Geography. Younger colleagues may not be aware of the history of the concept, or of how it has changed in assessment terms in the past decade. Understanding this change is, to me, crucial in explaining to students what they need to do in examinations.
Synopticity – then: ‘Think like a Geographer’
The concept of synopticity first appeared in assessment terms in the mid-1990s. The aim was to encourage students to look beyond the limits of discrete sections of the subject, in simple terms of Physical and Human Geography, but also between subsets of these discrete parts. It is the case that we tend to separate out say, Tectonics from Ecosystems, or Population from Development. Teachers were (are?) either Physical Geographers or Human Geographers, and never the twain shall meet! Students were encouraged to look beyond these separate elements for the connections between the different parts of the subject, and to see how one element of for example landscape geography influenced aspects of human geography (sometimes called determinism) or vice-versa.
A phrase to try and explain to students what they needed to do was born: ‘Think like a Geographer’. I’m not sure who first came up with the phrase, I like to think it was Professor Michael Bradford, but I can’t be sure. For years, when addressing teachers and students, I would corrupt the statement further…. ‘Think like a Geographer…. Sting like a bee’ (with apologies to Muhammad Ali).
[I have seen on Twitter people using the statements of ‘Read like a Geographer’ and ‘Talk like a Geographer’. So be it, but I am not sure what they mean.]
In assessment terms, the key aspect was to say to students, here is an essay title; the answer is complex, you can develop it as much as you want, in whatever direction you want to take it (as long as it was appropriate), and you have 60 minutes to write it. Think, and take your time. I used to suggest they should write a minimum of 1000 words, but ideally about 1400 words. For AQA, the mark allocation was 40 marks, assessed over 4 levels.
Here are some examples from AQA exam papers in 2010 and 2011:
2010: “Countries at very low levels of economic development face such huge challenges that they cannot hope to address them without assistance from the rest of the world.” To what extent do you agree with this view?
2010: “The hazards presented by volcanic and seismic events have the greatest impact on the world’s poorest people.” To what extent do you agree with this view?
And my favourite….
2011: Discuss the issue: ‘No development without security and no security without development’.
The key aspect was that students were in control of their synopticity – they spread their knowledge and understanding outwards from a question. It was an OPEN process.
Assessment wasn’t easy, but it was enjoyable. The standardisation process was done face-to face, with good debate and discussion, and over a day. Some students wrote some very impressive answers, well-structured, interesting, and with flair.
Synopticity – now: ‘Connections and links’
In 2014, it was decided by the Government that A levels had to change, and new, the current, specifications were written. The exams regulator, Ofqual, issued new guidelines to all subjects as to how the assessment regime should operate. As you know, in Geography, there are three Assessment Objectives (AOs).
One of these AOs is AO2. Contained towards the end of the descriptor for AO2 is the following:
‘The emphasis in this assessment objective is on application ….. this should involve the learner working with their knowledge and understanding as well as showing critical thinking skills by:
...making links between such type of material which are not signalled in the specification.’
Initially, this would appear to be no different to what came before. However, that is not the case.
Synopticity is now assessed in one of three ways. They involve:
· A decision-making or problem-solving exercise which requires exam candidates to draw together relevant knowledge from different learned topics and exam resources to form an overview (Edexcel).
· An assessment or overview of the issues affecting a particular large-scale region or area, which allows candidates to combine and apply relevant knowledge (WJEC and Eduqas).
· An extended prose question covering geographical issues or problems that requires candidates to apply and evaluate relevant integrated knowledge from two or more different topics (AQA and OCR).
Here are some examples of how AQA and OCR now assess synopticity. Note how the questions are much more CLOSED, or targeted:
AQA (2022)
Assess the effects on the carbon cycle of incineration and landfill approaches to waste disposal in urban areas. (9)
To what extent do you agree that global governance is necessary to ensure food security? (9)
OCR (2019)
Assess how patterns of diseases are influenced by changes in one landscape system you have studied. (12)
Examine how impacts of seismic activity are severely worsened by the water cycle. (12)
So, synopticity is now assessed in a more controlled format, and Simon Oakes has suggested that the connections can be:
· Topic links: ‘joining the dots’ between topics, theories, processes or case studies. For example, understanding how places are interdependent or connected with one another
· Place links: exploring how a particular local place is influenced by a range of processes or issues associated with different geographical topics, such as globalisation and tectonic processes
· Concept links: applying important ‘overarching’ geographical concepts, such as positive feedback or resilience, across different geographical topics
· ‘Actor’ links: evaluating the importance of different players or stakeholders operating at varying geographic scales (the players may also have differing levels of power or competing perspectives on an issue).
Is this more recent form of synopticity any better than the original? It could be argued to be easier to standardize across assessments. But has it produced better geographers? I am not convinced – but I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Finally, let us examine how synoptic links could be illustrated following the recent Covid pandemic. The following account links four of the key geographical themes which currently occur across the current specifications, (and this once again draws upon the work of Simon Oakes):
Urban growth and disease/Disease dilemmas: Covid 19 was most likely from a zoonotic source, meaning that it diffused from an animal species. Evidence of the virus first emerged in the animal market of the urban area of Wuhan, China in late 2019.
Global systems: global flows of tourists and businesspeople allowed the virus to spread quickly. The WHO declared that there was a pandemic of the disease in March 2020. Global economic hubs, such as London and New York and popular tourist sites such as the Swiss Alps rapidly turned into Covid hotspots. National lockdowns, such as in Italy and the UK, led to the widespread adoption of technologies that emphasised the ‘shrinking world’ concept – Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
Changing places: under lockdown, many people’s feelings about their ‘place’ changed. Anxiety, uncertainty, and even danger led to negative perceptions of place. Offices, shops, schools, restaurants and transport systems stopped operating normally as people were asked to work from home, and not travel. Millions of workers were furloughed, at great expense to national governments.
Futures: long term implications for companies in managing their workforces, the reduction in the use of city centre buildings, changes to shopping habits, migration of workers into the countryside away from cities, early retirement and the effects of the condition known as Long Covid all point to the future being different to the time pre-pandemic.