Acknowledgements

I am especially grateful to my former colleagues in the geog-

raphy department at Settle High School and Community Col-
lege, with whom I worked for eight years. In particular I want
to place on record the key role of Bob Hordern as a role model
and mentor for outstanding geography teaching. I am also
grateful to all the students I taught and from whom I learned so
much about what does and doesn’t work in the classroom. I
particularly want to thank them for their willingness to engage
in the creative, unusual and sometimes downright balmy les-
sons that I prepared for them. I enjoyed every day that I was
lucky enough to teach them.
As well as contributing the case studies, Sophie Craven read
through the entire manuscript and made many comments that
helped to improve the final version. I am also grateful to Alan
Kinder and Alan Parkinson for their support of the project.
Finally, I want to thank my wife, Amanda, and parents for unfail-
ing support during the preparation of this book.

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9781847061676_Prelims_Finals_txt_print.indd viii 5/18/2012 1:31:44 PM
 A note about key stages
and year groups

Throughout the book, reference is made to key stages and year

groups which are specific to the education system in England and
Wales. The following key explains what these terms mean.

Year 7: 11 to 12 years old

Year 8: 12 to 13 years old
Year 9: 13 to 14 years old
Year 10: 14 to 15 years old
Year 11: 15 to 16 years old
Year 12: 16 to 17 years old
Year 13: 17 to 18 years old

Key stage 3: 11 to 14 years old

Key stage 4: 14 to 16 years old
Key stage 5: 16 to 18 years old

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 Key
This symbol in the margin denotes reflective questions
for you to think about

This symbol appears where there is supplementary mate-

rial or a downloadable version of the text on the com-
panion website

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 Introducing geography
1
Overview
This chapter provides the background and context for the
book. It justifies the place of geography in the twenty-first
century and argues that good geographers can be seen as
survivors. The chapter invites you to explore your personal
vision for geography and goes on to consider the cross-
curricular and extra-curricular links and the creative nature
of geography teaching. It also discusses the pressures on
geography as a subject and asks you to join the mission to
reinstate it as a highly relevant and integral part of any
modern secondary school syllabus.

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 2 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Good geographers are survivors. There is no doubt that our distant

ancestors simply had to have supreme geographical knowledge
and skills to survive the rigours of their lives. They needed them
so they could find things to eat and drink, and then safely navi-
gate their way back to their simple dwellings. They needed them
so they knew which hazards they must avoid along their routes,
and so they could read the language of the clouds. They eventu-
ally needed them so they could ensure their crops would grow to
sustain their families. In short, our ancestors were survivors
because they valued geographical knowledge and skills.
A lot has changed in the intervening years. We will very soon
become a predominantly urban species – with more people on
our planet living in built-up areas than in the countryside.
Although for many people, navigating their way to the super-
market has replaced the skills to find wild food, humanity is
facing other – equally serious – challenges.

Our planet is heating up, seemingly because of our actions, with

potentially very damaging consequences.
Pollution of our environment is changing ecosystems forever.
Increasing leisure time in many parts of the world is bringing its own
unforeseen problems.
Urban planners have yet to find the solution to harmonious city life
for people of all social groups.
Despite the easy availability of food and other basic resources in
many parts of the world, there are millions of people still living below
the poverty line.

For these reasons, and many others like them, we still need good
geographers. In fact, I’m convinced that every citizen needs to
have a good grasp of geography in all its forms. And those who
will become our leaders need the best grasp of all.
This book is about how you can inspire, nurture and motivate
the next generation of decision-makers through your work as a
geography teacher. Remember: the current generation will go on
to shape the future of our world.

Your own vision for geography

What’s your own personal vision for geography? Perhaps this isn’t
a question you’ve given much thought to before, but before we

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 Introducing geography 3
get into the nuts and bolts of geographical education, it’s a vital
question to ask yourself. Why? Because it underpins everything
you do as a geography teacher and will serve as a key point of
reference now and in the future.
Your vision for geography should encompass some big-picture
issues about its place in the world and in our schools. It should
address some deep philosophical issues as well as deal with prac-
tical day-to-day matters. It should make clear why you became a
geography teacher and what core mission guides your work on a
day-to-day basis. My belief is that very few geography teachers
came into the role by accident: instead, they share a distinctive
world view that is different from, say, English or maths teachers.
Pause now to reflect on your vision as a geography teacher by
answering the following questions:

Why did you choose the career of geography teaching?

Why is geography still so important to you today?
What geographical knowledge, skills, values and attitudes do you
want your students to leave school with?
What kind of preferred future are you working towards, for our world
and for your school?
How, through your day-to-day work as a teacher, will you try to
achieve these goals?

A vision should be inspirational and motivating for the person

who has created it. Why not write the answers to these ques-
tions somewhere special so you can refer to them when the
going gets tough? Remember to not be afraid of thinking big with
your vision. A famous thinker once said: ‘Your vision isn’t big
enough unless people are falling over laughing when they hear
about it!’

Cross-curricular links
Geography teaching in our schools takes place within the context
of a host of other subjects and disciplines. As teachers, it is our role
to make geography distinctive while also ensuring there is a good
‘fit’ with other areas of the formal and informal curriculum. One of
the reasons that most students find geography innately interesting
and useful is because it has immediate relevance to their lives. It
also has a key contribution to make in creating rounded individuals.

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 4 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

For example, geography can help to develop problem-solving and

decision-making skills which are essential for a happy and product-
ive life – as well as helping young people to pass their exams.
Throughout this book, links will be made to the ways in which
geography can form part of the wider web of learning taking
place in your school – and indeed beyond it. Reflect now for a
few moments on what that web looks like in your context:

How well is geography integrated into the whole curriculum in your

school?
How are students shown how to transfer the skills they have learned
in the geography classroom?
What contribution does geography make to other aspects of your
school, such as citizenship education, the global dimension and the
development of functional skills?

You will have the chance to do some more thinking about these
issues later in the book, through some targeted tasks. They will
help you to see that whenever you teach a geography lesson, for
every one of students your teaching forms just one part of a much
wider web of learning.

Creativity for geography

I happen to believe that geography teachers have always tended
to be among the most creative teachers in a school. I think it’s
partly due to the nature of the subject and the kinds of learning
that are possible when you teach geography. But I’m sure it’s also
due to the creative spirit of most geography teachers, inspired as
they are by wilderness, the natural world, the intriguing geog-
raphy of settlements or whatever else makes them tick. Geog-
raphy also allows us to get outside into the wider world – or as I
often like to see it, the real world – with young people, so we can
let their spirits free, too. Here, the wind can mess up their hair,
they can get soaked to the skin and they can be inspired by what
exists outside their predominantly centrally heated world. Geog-
raphy really does provide a rich playground for creativity.
Throughout my own career as a geography teacher and subject
leader, I tried to model a highly creative approach to teaching. I
knew I had made an important step forward when four years into
my first teaching job, a group of year 10 General Certificate of

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 Introducing geography 5
Secondary Education (GCSE) students chose to present the impact
of Hurricane Andrew through the medium of an elaborate pup-
pet show – and I wasn’t fazed by the prospect! I’m glad I let them
do it, as I’m glad I let that rather far-fetched costumed role play
on the rainforest to take place, and that brilliant decision-making
exercise on the local wind farm that we filmed for prosperity.
Some of the participating students – now with their own chil-
dren – still talk about those lessons. These experiences have con-
vinced me that to truly bring geography alive, we need to revel in
the creative possibilities of the subject and help all the young
people we work with to develop their own creative skills. This is
a central message running through this book.

The pressures on geography

I’m sure you’ve got the message by now that I’m tirelessly opti-
mistic about what geography can do – how it can open minds
and open doors to a whole new world of discovery. But I’m also
aware that geography as a subject is under pressure in our schools.
In fact, I’d go further than that: I think it is in danger of being
squeezed into insignificance.
There are many reasons for this. One of them is the huge
wealth of choice now given to students in schools. I used to have
five GCSE teaching groups in my department, whereas now
many of these students instead choose subjects like business,
media studies or IT. These are the kind of pressures affecting all
subjects to some extent, but I fear that geography is witnessing a
more insidious and damaging phenomenon – it is being margin-
alized because fewer and fewer people feel it offers something
distinctive and valuable to the curriculum at school. While the
views of such people must be challenged and are surely based on
misconceptions, there is no denying their effect, with fewer and
fewer students taking geography and universities seeing an asso-
ciated decline in geography undergraduates.
The UK National Action Plan for Geography, which launched
in 2006, was initiated to address some of these issues, but there is
still much work to do. If you accept my analysis, then it is surely
up to all of us who are passionate about geography to join a mis-
sion to reinstate the subject as an essential part of any twenty-
first-century curriculum. My hope is that by presenting a wealth
of exciting and innovative teaching and learning strategies for

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 6 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

geography in this book, coupled with a simple but rigorous frame-

work underpinning creative geography teaching, I can feed the
minds of those at the forefront of the challenge that awaits us.
Surely it will be geography teachers who will be on the front line
as we try to recover the ground that we have lost. Are you ready
to join the mission?

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 Geographical learning
models
2
Overview
This chapter sets out the main models that underpin the
rest of the book. It leads the reader through an academ-
ically rigorous but highly practical four-stage approach to
outstanding geography lessons, which is developed from
a tried and tested generic model for effective teaching
and learning. This chapter also considers what the essen-
tial features are of effective geography lessons. Also intro-
duced is the concept of the creativity cycle, an eight-step
approach to developing creativity in the classroom. Do
take the time to digest the main messages of this chap-
ter – the rest of the book is written with the assumption
that you have a good grasp of these essential models.

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 8 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

There have been many attempts to characterize the essential

elements in episodes of teaching and learning. In our book The
Creative Teaching & Learning Toolkit, Will Thomas and I proposed a
new way to think about the key factors to be considered when
making judgements about teaching and learning in the form of
our Five Domains of Effective Teaching (see Figure 2.1). This model
has been very well received by teachers and has provided a sim-
ple but powerful tool to enable more incisive thinking about
really effective teaching and learning.
For the purposes of this book, however, we need to focus in
detail on how this model can be used to help design more effect-
ive learning experiences in geography. In order to do this, I

VISIO
N

S ’ PROFE
ER
SS

REFL
H

ECTI
TEAC

IONAL

ON AN
PERS D
ONAL
CLIMA
TE
DOM
AIN

TEAC
HING
AND
LEAR
STRA NING
TEGI
ES

Figure 2.1 The five domains of effective teaching

First published in Best, B., and W. Thomas (2007), The Creative Teaching &
Learning Toolkit. London: Continuum International Publishing.

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 Geographical learning models 9

Reflection for
Vision for geography
geography
From discrete task to
Reflecting on the
major geographical
geographical
learning goals
learning process

Teaching and
learning strategies Classroom climate for
for geography geography
Diverse, creative Including physical and
approaches that psychological factors
enthuse and inspire

Figure 2.2 The four hemispheres of effective geography teaching

have created a new model which I have called The Four Hemi-
spheres of Effective Geography Teaching, as shown in Figure 2.2. The
original component of the teacher’s personal and professional domain –
while highly relevant to the teaching of geography – is beyond
the immediate scope of this book, which is concerned with
designing engaging and stimulating geography lessons.
The Four Hemispheres of Effective Geography Teaching shows how
teachers can focus on four key elements in lesson planning and
‘delivery’ – vision, climate for learning, teaching and learning
strategies, and reflection. I will now consider each of these hemi-
spheres in detail, making practical suggestions in each case for
what this means for your classroom.

Vision for geography

Whenever you start planning your teaching – whether it be a com-
plete scheme of work or a discrete activity within a lesson – you should
have a clear idea of what you are aiming to achieve. Your intended
outcomes form the core part of your day-to-day vision for the kind of
geographical knowledge and skills you want your students to

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 10 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Task 2.1: Clarify your vision for geography

Complete the table to help articulate aspects of your vision for geography
at a variety of scales. Note that in each case the vision refers to your
intended outcomes at a range of scales. Record in the ‘explanation’ column
examples that illustrate your vision at each level: for example, the aims of
a particular lesson activity or the major goals underpinning your work as a
geography teacher. As you work through each, note any actions that sug-
gest themselves.

Scale Explanation Suggested new actions

Lesson activity
Complete lesson
Unit of work
Scheme of work
Major goals for
geography teaching

develop. There is a bigger picture to your vision, too, which con-

cerns your ‘major goals’ for geography teaching. These are the key
concepts, ideas, facts, skills, and values and attitudes that you want
to inform – part of everything you do as a teacher. This overarching
vision may have a particular emphasis depending on your back-
ground or the specifics of your own geographical education or pre-
vious jobs (e.g. environmental concerns, urban geography issues,
the specifics of physical geography). Task 2.1 will help you to clarify
your vision for geography at a range of scales.

Classroom climate for geography

Outstanding geography lessons usually take place when there is
a distinctive and effective classroom climate. This refers to both the
physical (e.g. the use of displays) and psychological aspects (e.g.
how you support the emotional needs of students) of your class-
room. An effective classroom climate for geography will facilitate
every other aspect of your work and the learning of your stu-
dents. On the other hand, a classroom climate that is not appropriate
can hinder learning and can render even innovative teaching

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 Geographical learning models 11
Psychological factors Physical factors

-Student contentment -Temperature

-Stress levels -Oxygen levels
-Emotional support -Stimulating geographical
provided displays for all the senses

Figure 2.3: Classroom climate for geography

and learning approaches ineffective. For this reason, it’s vital to

think carefully about your own classroom climate and to take
practical steps to engineer precisely the kind of climate that is
desirable. It’s vital to remember that the classroom climate will
not simply ‘look after itself’ if you design fun learning experi-
ences; instead it needs to be planned for. There are key links here
with the accelerated learning approach, which is explored fur-
ther on page 33. Figure 2.3 explores key aspects of classroom
climate for geography, and Task 2.2. encourages you to consider
in detail your own classroom climate.

Task 2.2: Explore your classroom climate for

geography
Study Figure 2.3 and imagine what two or three students in one of your
teaching groups might say about the classroom climate you have cre-
ated. Write down their responses under the headings: physical and
psychological. You may later wish to actually do this with some stu-
dents, perhaps as part of a student ‘focus group’ activity. What aspects
of your classroom climate do you feel you may need to work on? How
could you do this? Who else in your school or local authority might
support you as you do this? This would be an excellent exercise to carry
out in conjunction with another person in your department. You may
also wish to consider whether there are any aspects of the classroom
climate that seem beyond your immediate control, and what the bar-
riers are to influencing them. Will some whole school measures be
needed to help create a better climate for learning in every
classroom?

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 12 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

In many schools, the physical factors affecting the climate for

learning in classrooms are often neglected. Indeed, some teachers
might argue that some of these factors are beyond their immedi-
ate control. Task 2.2 invites you to consider this dilemma in fur-
ther detail.

Teaching and learning for

geography
I’m convinced that it is possible to make geography lessons
some of the very best learning experiences that students ever
witness during their time in school. By this, I mean it is possible
to make geographical learning exciting, engaging, challenging,
relevant, innovative and fun – all at the same time! I’m con-
vinced of this because I’ve had the pleasure to work with young
people who have told me about geography lessons that they
still remember, even though school is otherwise a distant mem-
ory. The specific teaching and learning strategies that teachers
use to switch young minds on to geography are the key to
unlocking the world of outstanding geography lessons. They
are your bread and butter as a geography teacher, and if you
neglect them, both you and your students will be malnourished
intellectually.
There are literally thousands of different teaching and learn-
ing strategies that you can use as a geography teacher. Figure 2.4
gives a brief outline of some of the main types, and Task 2.3 asks
you to use this diagram to carry out an audit of your preferred
teaching and learning approaches.
Analysis of teaching styles in schools has shown that teachers
tend to have a predominant style which they habitually use to
the exclusion of other styles. This preferred teaching style of teach-
ers also encompasses a discrete set of teaching and learning strat-
egies which their students become familiar with. There is a real
danger, however, that this preferred teaching style is excluding
some students with specific learning preferences which are in
contradiction of the teaching style. For this reason, it is really
important to vary your teaching style, and the specific teaching
and learning approaches that accompany it, to appeal to the wid-
est possible range of students.

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 Geographical learning models 13
Hands-on activities (e.g.
Advertisement
with artefacts or props)

Answering questions
Interviews
set by teacher

Card sort Letter to the editor

Listening to a
Charades
radio programme

Chart/table/graph Making a video

Conference or Modelling and

summit artwork

Creating a fact sheet Newspaper report

Creative writing Pairwork

Debate Poetry

Design a poster/ Presentation by

leaflet student or group

Teaching and learning

strategies for geography

Reading a newspaper
Design a game /magazine article to
extract information

Design a web page Role play

Election Play

Enquiry Poem/Rap

Student-led
Extended projects
discussion

Fashion show System diagram

Teacher-led
Fieldtrips and visits
discussion

Five day diary Venn diagram

Groupwork Watching a video

Working from a
Guest speaker
text book

Figure 2.4 Teaching and learning strategies for geography

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 14 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Task 2.3: Audit your teaching and learning strategies

Cast your eyes over Figure 2.4, considering as you do so the strategies
you habitually use and those that are outside your current comfort
zone. Write the name of each strategy in the first column below, and
add in any strategies you use that are not mentioned in Figure 2.4.
Then complete the matrix, placing a tick in the relevant column.

Strategy Never use Sometimes Frequently Often use

use use

Now that you’ve carried out this audit, what does it suggest about the
range of teaching and learning approaches that you currently use? Which
student learning preferences do your favoured teaching strategies appeal
to? What, if anything, needs to change in the light of these findings? Which
parts of this book are going to help you to address these areas? Who can
support you as you try to diversify your teaching repertoire?
As you set to work in diversifying your teaching strategies, you may
find it helpful first to locate each strategy on the continuum below. The
further to the right-hand side of the continuum you place the strategy,
the more challenging it is likely to be to implement. Remember, how-
ever, that it is good for your own professional practice – and the benefit
of your students – to work outside your comfort zone.

←---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------→

Tried, tested and safe strategies Innovative/experimental strategies

The best geography teachers are successful because they are able
to, over the course of a unit of study, harness an effective blend of
teaching and learning approaches that appeals to the widest pos-
sible range of students. Effective geography lessons also incorp-
orate extensive variety in order to keep students on their toes.

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 Geographical learning models 15
Teachers need to be wary of delivering the same kind of lessons
every day simply because they seemed to ‘work’ with a particular
group. For this reason, effective geography teachers experiment,
take risks and sometimes make mistakes. This goes with the ter-
ritory of creative teaching and learning.

Reflection for geography

Any good teacher actively reflects on their lessons and thinks
about what they might need to change in the future. The hemi-
sphere of reflection for geography takes things much further by
suggesting that a whole suite of reflective approaches needs to be
used in order to improve classroom practice. Figure 2.5 gives
some examples, and Task 2.4 asks you to get into the spirit of
reflection.

The views of Personal reflection,

students, e.g. through e.g. through notes
student questionnaires made during lesson
and focus groups and a reflective journal
of lessons

Reflection for geography

The views of The views of

fellow teachers in consultants and other
your school, external partners,
e.g. through observations e.g. through observations
and discussion and discussion
groups The views of groups
fellow teachers in
other schools,
e.g. through observations
and discussion
groups

Figure 2.5 Reflection for geography explored

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 16 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Task 2.4: Reflection for geography

Consider a lesson you taught recently, and consider the following
questions:

What went well in the lesson?

What did not go so well?
What did your students think of the lesson? (How do you know
this?)
How would they suggest it be changed next time you teach
it?
What other pieces of information could you gather in order to
make judgements about the success of the lesson?
Who else could help you to reflect on the success of lessons in
the future, and how might they be involved?

The key principles of outstanding

geography lessons
I’ve had the pleasure to observe some wonderful examples of
inspirational geography teaching over the last few years. It is
clear that there are lots of thing going on when really good geo-
graphical teaching and learning is taking place. It is not just about
students being excited by a geographical idea or fact, or about the
class having ‘fun’ in your classroom. Figure 2.6 attempts to pro-
vide an aide memoire to guide your thinking about high quality
geography lessons. This figure includes many of the principles
that Ofsted inspectors are looking for when they make judge-
ments about your lessons. Task 2.5 asks you to consider which of
these principles are routinely seen in your own geography les-
sons. Don’t worry that this list seems like a demanding and
exhaustive one: the many practical suggestions in this book are
designed to help you move towards being a truly expert geog-
raphy teacher.

The importance of creativity

Creativity is the quest for new ways of thinking and doing. It has
key relevance to geography because in order to solve some of the
principal geographical conundrums facing the world, we need
novel solutions. Just like those making vital decisions about how

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 Geographical learning models 17
Students are understanding
Students are engaged in the relevance of what
their learning they are learning to their
lives outside school

Students’ views on all

Students are participating aspects of teaching are
in their learning being taken into
account

Teachers are facilitating

Students are partners in
learning by matching their
the learning process
teaching approaches to the
(i.e. they are not having
individual abilities and
geography ‘done’ to them)
needs of students

Key principles of
effective geography
lessons

The teacher and the

Students are making students are using
active choices about what appropriate forms of talk
and how they learn to explore meanings
in the lesson

Students are being The teacher is explaining

challenged on a personal how what is being learnt
level, while not finding relates the rest of the
the work so difficult as topic/syllabus in
to be de-motivated geography

The teacher is making

Students are making
clear what the links are
links with what they
between what is being
have learnt before
learnt and other subjects
in geography
at school

Figure 2.6 Key principles of outstanding geography lessons

Task 2.5: Towards outstanding geography lessons

Study Figure 2.6 that outlines the key principles of outstanding geog-
raphy lessons. Consider your teaching over the last half-term, and give
yourself a score out of 10 for each of the principles listed. Which prin-
ciples stand out as requiring the most attention? Create a prioritized list
of actions that you will need to take to move your lessons towards the
‘outstanding’ category. Then think about whom in your school can sup-
port you as you strive to make your geography lessons outstanding and
what they can do to help you.

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 18 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Creativity in geography is about new

and appropriate teaching and learning

New: geographical knowledge,

understanding and skills

Appropriate to: geography curriculum,

students’ lives, the real world

Delivered through: creative

geographical teaching and learning
methods

Figure 2.7 Geographical creativity

we will address these global, national and local challenges, your

students need to develop their own creative skills. They need a
toolkit for creative thoughts and creative action that will help
them to pass their exams, to find a job, to become effective employ-
ees and to manage life’s day-to-day challenges positively.
There is a special kind of creativity that has particular relevance
to geography, and Figure 2.7 explores this concept further.
According to this model, creative geography teaching and
learning methods help to ensure that students’ geographical
knowledge, understanding and skills are developed, which has
relevance to the geography curriculum, students’ lives and the
real world. Teachers can, through some targeted teaching and
learning methods, help students to develop their own creativity
in geography. Throughout this book, there are many examples of
how students can utilize creative (i.e. new and appropriate)
methods to enhance their geographical learning and develop
their creative toolkit.
Furthermore, creativity can be considered a process with eight
distinct steps (Figure 2.8) which can be broken down and taught
discretely or as a whole. In this way, every student can be enabled
to develop the eight steps to creativity. Note that while your

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 Geographical learning models 19
Vision / purpose

n t

Id
ve

e
-in

a
ge
re

ne
or

ra
ify

tio
od

n
M

Idea selection
Reflection

n
io
ct
ra
O
ut

fo
co

ng
m

ni
e

an
Pl
Action for creativity

Figure 2.8 The creativity cycle

First published in Best, B., and W. Thomas (2007). The Creative Teaching &
Learning Toolkit. London: Continuum International Publishing.

Task 2.6: Creativity for learning

Consider the eight steps to creativity shown in Figure 2.8. Think about
your teaching over the last couple of weeks, and consider the extent
to which you have allowed your students to develop each of the eight
steps to creativity. Which steps have you allowed time for and specif-
ically encouraged your students to develop, and which steps have
not been targeted? Creativity for learning is often best considered
when students have been challenged to solve a particular problem or
carry out an enquiry. Draw up a shortlist of the specific steps to cre-
ativity that you intend to target in the future. Is there an argument for
having a special series of lessons where the eight steps to creativity
are worked through with some geographical content? Note that it is
likely that your students may be pretty good at the first two steps:
being clear about the purpose and then generating possible solu-
tions, but be less good at the remaining six steps. They may need
some targeted support in order to develop their competence in these
aspects of creativity.

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 20 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

students may be good at coming up with ideas (the first step), they
may not be that effective at selecting the most appropriate ideas to
implement and then working hard to put these into practice. This
can be addressed by specific teaching of these steps, allowing your
students to develop their creative repertoire (see Task 2.6).

The ideal geography student?

The result of your outstanding geography teaching is that you
will have helped to produce well-rounded students who have
excellent geographical knowledge, understanding and skills, and
are well placed to play their full part in decisions affecting their
lives and those of others, whatever their chosen career. There’s
no doubt that in order to do this, you’ll need to be at your best,
but you also need the active support of your students. A fun way
of thinking about this is to ask students what the ideal geography
student might look like. Give your students an opportunity to
draw a cartoon showing their views of what an ideal geography
student might look like ,and allow yourself time to do the same
(see Task 2.7).

Task 2.7: My ideal geography student

Create your own cartoon to show what your ideal geography student
might look like. For example, the cartoon might show the equipment
the students might carry with them (in a rucksack perhaps?), the cloth-
ing they might wear or the habits of mind of really good geographers
(shown through thought bubbles). You may want to look back to your
work on Task 2.1 to remind you of some of the key principles underpin-
ning your work. Scan this into the computer, and project it for your
students to see, explaining as you do so what each of the factors are.
This kind of activity is an ideal way to start the year, to help students to
see where their geographical learning is heading. The best time for stu-
dents to create their own cartoon would be towards the end of their
study of the subject, reviewing what they have learned about the qual-
ities of an ideal geography student.

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 Practical classroom
matters
3
Overview
This chapter focuses in detail on the nuts of bolts and les-
son planning and ‘delivery’. If you’ve not yet read the open-
ing two chapters setting out the context for the book and
the key models that underpin effective geography teach-
ing, now is the time to take a quick look at them. Particular
note should be taken of the Four Hemispheres of Geogra-
phy Teaching and the Creativity Cycle, as the remainder of
the book assumes you have a working knowledge of these
models. Throughout this chapter, emphasis is placed on
practical strategies for the classroom, with tried and tested
teaching and learning activities that you can use straight
away. If you want additional immediate inspiration for
your lessons linked to specific parts of the geography cur-
riculum, you should also look at the ‘Lesson stimuli‘ online
at http://education.best.continuumbooks.com.

21

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 22 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Planning for effective teaching

and learning
The old adage that proper planning prevents poor performance
could not be truer for the teaching of such a dynamic subject as
geography. The multifaceted nature of the subject and the range
of resources that can be employed to bring geography to life
mean that careful preparation for learning is essential. It is gener-
ally true that the most effective lessons are those that require the
most time to set up, so do not shy away from the planning time
needed to deliver outstanding geography lessons. Teachers new
to the classroom will naturally take some time to build up a bank
of highly effective lessons. A certain amount of patience and a
willingness to curb your natural desire to try to perfect the art of
teaching in the first term will be needed. It will take some time to
become the master of your classroom. This leads us to the crucial
matters of lesson planning and schemes of work.

Lesson planning and schemes of work

Every good geography department is rigorous with its planning.
While everyday innovation is encouraged, each lesson forms part
of a wider learning framework that is set out in lesson plans and the
schemes of work that fit these together into the jigsaw of geograph-
ical learning. These represent part of your vision for geography and
form a constant point of reference for teachers and students – the
highest performing departments often sharing the schemes of work
with students, on giant mind maps (see page 86), for example.
Your lesson plans should be concise, allow room for innov-
ation and flexibility, and cover the following information:
Date of lesson
Duration of lesson
Learning objectives
Four-part lesson structure: put learning in context, starter, main teach-
ing and learning, plenary
Differentiation techniques
Extension.

This information is best laid out in tabular format as shown in

Figure 3.1.
It is important to bear in mind that geographical learning often
involves enquiries and topic work that extends over several
lessons. It is important to prepare lesson plans for each of these

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 Practical classroom matters 23
Date of lesson
Duration of lesson
Time of lesson
Level of group
Lesson theme
Learning objectives
Resources
Four part lesson structure
Put the learning in context
Starter
Main teaching and learning
(including principal learning episodes)
Plenary
More able will do…
Most students will do…
Less able will do…
Differentiation techniques
Extension
Teacher reflection on lesson

Figure 3.1 Lesson planning

Key
stage/ Length of Lesson Learning Key
Topic Sub-topic Notes
year time theme objectives resources
group

Figure 3.2 Schemes of work

lessons to ensure that students are not coasting, and have clear
learning objectives for each of the lessons in a sequence.
Your schemes of work should set out learning objectives at
a broader scale, outlining for each topic what will be learned and
the methods that will be used to aid that learning. Again, a tabu-
lar structure is best for schemes of work, as shown in Figure 3.2.
Your schemes of work should include a breakdown of each les-
son that will be used to cover each subtopic being studied,
together with the learning objectives to be covered. They should
also include links to other aspects of the syllabus.
Rigorous schemes of work and lesson plans will provide the
platform for the delivery of outstanding geography lessons and
should serve as a constant reference point throughout the school

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 24 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

year. Task 3.1 invites you to think about your schemes of work
and lesson plans in more detail.

Task 3.1: Schemes of work and lesson plans explored

Read over the above text about schemes of work and lesson planning.
What are the major challenges you face as you prepare schemes of work
and lesson plans? What have you tried to do to overcome these? Which
parts of this book will help you come to grips with the specific challenges
you face? Who else in your school and further afield could support you as
you strive to improve your schemes of work and lesson plans?

Specific challenges of
different year groups
Learning how to be an outstanding geography teacher will
include an acceptance that there are a range of challenges which
must be faced to ensure that every lesson engages learners. In
addition to the day-to-day challenges you encounter with all the
groups you teach – which are explored throughout the book –
there exist some challenges that are more or less specific to cer-
tain year groups

Key stage 3 challenges (year 7–9; age 11–13)

Key stage 3 represents an important three-year period because the
choices that students make at the end of the key stage determine
whether they will continue to study the subject to GCSE level in
years 10 and 11. As such, it is vital to show students the full riches
of geography during key stage 3 so that the maximum number of
students will continue to choose to study the subject through to
key stage 4. This is especially important in the light of the declines
in the number of students taking geography GCSE in recent years.
Some of the other challenges at key stage 3 include:

The importance of providing a seamless continuation from any geog-

raphy that has been taught in the primary school – this will be espe-
cially challenging where the details of what was taught in the feeder
schools are sketchy.
The need to provide continuity with the content to follow at GCSE
level.

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 Practical classroom matters 25
Successfully immersing your students in the culture of the department,
which may be quite different to the classroom culture of their primary
school and may even be other departments in your school.
Providing an effective balance between geographical knowledge, under-
standing and skills, providing the springboard for study at GCSE level.
Enthusing your students so they see the relevance of geography to
their lives.
Showing your students the fun side to geographical learning.
Providing previews of what will be learned at GCSE level so students
can see where their learning is heading and look forward to that
learning.

Key stage 4 challenges (year 10–11; age 14–16)

Once GCSE study gets into full swing, the two years of study
seem to race by. Given the focus on GCSE examination results,
key stage 4 represents perhaps the most pivotal period for any
geography teacher. Some of the major challenges at key stage 4
include:

The balance between preparation for exams and the wider enjoyment
of the geography syllabus.
The need to develop geography fieldwork skills as well as classroom
knowledge and understanding.
The pressures of competing subjects which students are taking.
The pressures that are brought by demands outside the classroom: for
example, clubs and other extra-curricular activities, weekend jobs.
Providing previews of what lies ahead in A-level geography.

Given that the success of your geography department will be

largely judged by your GCSE examination results, the need to
channel much time and resources into years 10 and 11 is clear.

Key stage 5 challenges (year 12–13; age 17–18)

If your school has a sixth form, then hopefully enough students
will choose geography to form at least one AS/A-level group. For
many teachers, working at this level is one of the crowning joys
of geography teaching, with enthusiastic students helping you to
take the subject to all sorts of exciting places. Some of the major
challenges at key stage 5 include the following:

The balance between preparation for exams and preparation for

potential study of geography at university.

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 26 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

The pressures of other subjects which students are taking.

The increasing significance of paid part-time work by students outside
school.
The balance between coursework and exam work (depends on the syl-
labus being studied).
The need to keep the subject ‘fresh’ even after five years of study.
The need to help students develop increasing autonomy as learners,
while not losing sight of the key guiding role of teachers in every
classroom.

Task 3.2: The challenges of the key stages

Read over the above text about the challenges of different key stages.
Which challenges are most relevant to your own circumstances? Are
these the same for everyone in your department? What have you tried
to do to overcome these challenges? What will be your top three chal-
lenges moving forward?

Understanding the needs of

individual learners
Now that I have discussed some of the big-picture issues affecting
the teaching of geography, the following text explores in detail
some of the day-to-day matters that will concern you as you
design outstanding learning opportunities. The key principle here
is that effective teaching and learning depends on a sound under-
standing of a range of factors affecting students’ learning.

Multiple intelligences
Much has been written about the topic of multiple intelligences
in recent years. They were put on the educational map through
the pioneering work of Harvard professor Howard Gardner in his
book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York:
Basic Books, 1983). Gardner’s theory is simple: he argues that
intelligence should not be measured through the traditional
measure of IQ but instead should be understood as a much wider
concept, encompassing eight ‘multiple intelligences’ as follows:

Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Kinaesthetic
Linguistic

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 Practical classroom matters 27
Logical-mathematical
Musical
Naturalist
Spatial.

Gardner’s theory struck a chord with many teachers, and this led
to a range of new measures being introduced into schools to cata-
logue students’ intelligence profiles and teach in ways that wid-
ened their repertoire. Some of the key points to bear in mind
about Gardner’s theory and its application in geography class-
rooms include the following:

Diagnostic tests aimed at determining students’ intelligence profiles

can be helpful and generate useful information about a student’s all-
round abilities.
Gardner never argued, however, that students’ intelligence profiles are
fixed; instead they can be seen to constantly change as the student
matures.
Geography provides ample opportunities to develop all the multiple
intelligences, but you will need to find some creative ways to nurture
some of Gardner’s intelligences (music for example, but see page 36
for advice on how to do this).
The mission of every geography teacher should be to help students to
develop all their intelligences; students should not be allowed to use a
low score for one of the intelligences as an excuse for poor perform-
ance in a specific aspect of the geography curriculum as all the intelli-
gences can be developed.
Although multiple intelligence theory has important implications for
geography classrooms, there are pitfalls for the unwary. In particular,
schools should not be tempted to go too far down the route of diag-
nostic testing of multiple intelligences, especially the separation of
students according to their intelligence profiles.
In groupwork, for example, it would be wise to sometimes arrange group-
ings to ensure that there are students in the group with strengths in a
wide range in intelligences. This will ensure diversity in addressing tasks.
Gardner also considered existential and moral intelligence as potential
further intelligences but eventually rejected them. As Gardner’s ‘intel-
ligences’ essentially represent aptitudes in specific domains, there are
arguments for retaining them, as indeed there are arguments for add-
ing other additional intelligences to the list. You may find that a stu-
dent in your class displays an intelligence that does not easily fit with
one of the above-mentioned intelligences: for example, a student who
is highly creative. As such, be open to adapting Gardner’s theory to suit
your own circumstances. Remember: it remains a theory that has not
been rigorously tested.

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 28 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Learning activities for the multiple intelligences

Specific activities can be used to appeal to the intelligences of the stu-
dents you teach or to develop their intelligences. They are listed
below:

Interpersonal intelligence
Learning from others
Working in teams
Talking to others to share and get answers
Comparing notes after a study session
Making use of mentoring
Teaching others

Intrapersonal intelligence
Setting goals and targets for learning
Creating personal interest in the learning
Taking control of learning
Carrying out independent learning
Seeking out the human angle
Reflecting, writing or discussing what was experienced and the
feelings this invoked

Kinaesthetic intelligence
Learning by doing
Role play and drama
Field trips
Taking action: for example, writing down points or mind mapping
Making models
Card sorting exercises
Moving about while working
Mental review of learning while doing physical exercise

Linguistic intelligence
Learning from books, tapes, lectures and presentations
Writing down questions that need to be answered before starting
to learn
Reading aloud
After reading a piece of text, summarizing in own words out loud
and writing this down
Putting thoughts into own words
Brainstorming to organize thoughts into order or to distinguish key
points

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 Practical classroom matters 29
Making up crosswords and word puzzles to solve
Debating and discussing issues
Presenting what has been learned orally or in writing to another
student

Logical-mathematical intelligence
Listing key points in order and numbering them
Using a flowchart to express information in easy to follow steps
Using mind maps
Using computer spreadsheets
Using timelines for remembering events
Analyzing and interpreting data
Creating and solving problems

Musical intelligence
Using music to relax before learning
Studying music that reflects what is being learned
Reading rhythmically
Writing a song, jingle, rap or rhyme
Using musical approaches to memorize key words
Music can be used for the benefits of all students, and further advice
on using music in the classroom is given on page 36.

Naturalistic intelligence
Learning outdoors: for example, on field trips
Investigating environmental issues
Identifying and classifying the natural world
Reading about nature and the environment
Listening to guest speakers who are nature specialists
Devising role-plays with an environmental theme

Spatial intelligence
Learning from film, video, slides and PowerPoint presentations
Using mind maps, symbols and diagrams
Designing a poster with key facts on a topic
Highlighting key points in different colours
When reading, visualizing events in mind’s eye
Studying in different settings or areas of the room to gain a dif-
ferent perspective
Converting information into diagrams or pictures.

Adapted from Best, B., Accelerated Learning Pocketbook (Alresford, UK:

Management Pocketbooks, 2003).

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 30 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Emotional intelligence
Daniel Goleman introduced the concept of emotional intelligence
(EI), which builds on Gardner’s inter- and intrapersonal intelli-
gences. Its relevance to the geography classroom is that by pay-
ing attention to students’ EI, you can help them to enter a more
resourceful psychological state for learning. The EI or emotional
literacy of your students can be developed, so it is important to
build in ways of promoting EI in your lessons. There are six main
components of EI:

Self-awareness – having objectivity about your own feelings and

noticing the feelings as they occur.
Self-discipline – being able to motivate oneself and stay on task.
Empathy – being sensitive to the needs and feelings of others and
understanding that people are different and have different needs.
Persistence – being able to keep at a task, even if it is challenging.
Emotional management – constructively managing our own feelings
and recognizing the useful information that lies behind them.

Studies of Harvard University students have shown that it is those

with high EI – not high IQ – who are most successful in their
careers. Ideas for teaching EI in the geography classroom include
the following:

Encourage students to monitor their own strengths, weaknesses and

progress in geography (see page 56 for an example of a record card on
which they can do this).
Help students to assess their readiness to learn through a traffic light-
ing system – each student is given three cards marked with a red,
amber or green circle. When prompted by the teacher, they hold up
the card that best represents how ready they feel to learn. Green means
they feel very ready to learn, amber means they may need to some
help to feel ready to learn and red means they definitely do not feel
ready to learn. The reasons for lack of readiness to learn can be multi-
faceted and could include feeling stressed, anxious, tired, hungry,
thirsty, angry, and so on. A variety of strategies will need to be used to
help students overcome their barriers to learning.
Encourage students to routinely set their own targets for their geo-
graphical learning at a variety of levels. These can include an overall tar-
get grade for their GCSE or AS/A-level, a target mark for an end-of-unit
test and a target grade for their next piece of written work.

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 Practical classroom matters 31
Reward persistence with praise and effort marks when noted, and try
to help make persistence and determination part of the culture of your
classroom.
Help your students to empathize with each other and with people out-
side school using a variety of techniques: get them to share their wor-
ries/concerns about their geography studies; encourage them to learn
about other students’ strategies for improving in geography; allow
them to learn about the life of young people in other, especially poorer,
countries to build empathy for the daily struggles of others.
Emotional wisdom (the ability to use our EI to contribute to our fam-
ilies, our communities and humanity as a whole) is the ultimate goal of
teaching for EI. One of the most effective ways that students can learn
emotional wisdom is to have it modelled by their teachers.

You can read more about EI in Goleman’s seminal book Emo-

tional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (London: Blooms-
bury Publishing, 1996).

Learning styles
Closely related to the concept of multiple intelligences is the
notion of learning styles. The use of learning style analyses in
schools has become very popular in recent years, with some
schools even going as far as grouping students according to
whether they are considered visual, auditory or kinaesthetic
learners. Some essential things to bear in mind about learning
styles in the geography classroom include the following:

Students should be seen to have a preferred learning style rather than

having a sole learning style which dominates.
In reality, every student has a balance of learning preferences and can-
not just been seen as learning in one way (e.g. all students must be
able to learn through the auditory route to some extent, unless they
are deaf, though it may not be their preferred learning style).
Learning preferences are not fixed and can be developed; indeed it
could be argued that teachers should do everything in their power to
help their students to develop all their learning styles so they become
more rounded individuals.
Students should not be allowed to hide behind their preferred learn-
ing styles when challenged to learn in a different way. I have heard
some students, whose learning ‘style’ has been diagnosed, shy away
from carrying out specific tasks, because they claim they do not learn
that way. The reframe needed here is that it may not be their preferred

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 32 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Writing down
facts or drawing
a mind map

Using pictures,
Visualising
diagrams, charts,
what they’re Visual film, video and
learning
graphics

Using timelines
Watching
for remembering
videos
dates

Hearing a
presentation

Explaining the
Reading aloud subject matter to
another student

Auditory
Making a tape Verbally
recording of summarising
key points in own words

Listening to radio Listening to

programmes stories

Making models
Recording Logo visual
information in thinking
a mind map (see page 85)

Walking around
as they read
Kinaesthetic Role plays

Getting
Underlining/
physically/actively
highlighting key
Putting key points involved in the
points
on index cards learning
and sorting them
into order

Figure 3.3 Activities for different learning preferences

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 Practical classroom matters 33
learning style, but they are capable of learning that way. Indeed, with
practice it may become a more preferred option.
Geography by its very nature provides some rich ways of learning using
all three routes, and as a teacher, you should provide ample opportun-
ities for students to learn in visual, auditory and kinaesthetic ways (VAK).
Learning styles are not confined to the VAK trio; learners can also have
a preference to learning according to a whole host of other factors,
including being wholist/partist, being analytical learners or learning
through imagination. A key role of the geography teacher is to identify
how they can develop the widest range of learning preferences as pos-
sible. Some examples for VAK are given in Figure 3.3.

Task 3.3: Exploring learning preferences and

multiple intelligences
Read the text on learning preferences, multiple intelligences and emo-
tional intelligence. For each of the different preferences and intelligences,
give yourself a traffic light reading to determine how well you think you
cater for each in your classroom as follows:

Give yourself a green light if you cater for it well.

Give yourself an amber light if you cater for it quite well.
Give yourself a red light if you do not cater for it very well.

For those learning preference and multiple intelligences which have a

red light, consider how you can be inclusive of these in your classroom,
using the ideas presented in the book. Do any of these actions present
any contradictions or problems in your setting? Repeat the exercise at
the end of the next two terms, and see how the results vary.

Varied classroom approaches

The remainder of this chapter will consider the principal approaches
that can be harnessed inside and outside the classroom in order to
plan really effective learning experiences. The emphasis throughout
is on designing truly engaging and stimulating learning experiences.

Accelerated learning
Any teacher working in a UK secondary school will be sure to
have heard of accelerated learning. Some may even be passionate

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 34 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

advocates of the approach, having been on one of Alistair Smith’s

excellent courses on the subject. There is no doubt that acceler-
ated learning has much to offer in helping to get the most out of
your students.
Accelerated learning happens when we teach in way that
respects how students’ brains learn most effectively. There are
three main aspects to accelerated learning:

Ensuring students are in an appropriate physiological state for learning.

Ensuring students are in an appropriate psychological state for learning.
Using appropriate teaching and learning strategies that promote the
most effective learning.

There are close links between accelerated learning and the Four
Hemispheres of Geography Teaching (see page 9), as accelerated
learning directly addresses both the ‘Classroom climate for geog-
raphy’ and the ‘Teaching and learning strategies for geography’
components.
Whole books have been written about accelerated learning
(see below for suggested reading), and this is not the place to go
into detail about how to use the approach, but there are some
key points to bear in mind when you plan and deliver your geog-
raphy lessons. Follow the 12-step plan:

1. Ensure your students are in the correct physical state to learn (proper
hydration [see box] is important as are room temperature and oxy-
gen levels).
2. Use music in a targeted way to promote learning (see page 36 for
details).
3. Help students enter a positive emotional state for learning (e.g. by
relaxation exercises).
4. Create a classroom culture that supports learning but makes activ-
ities challenging.
5. Develop very good working relationships with your students, and
use praise frequently. Get to know them as individuals.
6. Plan inclusive learning activities that respect the full range of learn-
ing styles and intelligences, and are accessible to all students.
7. Use the following sequence in lessons:
Part 1: put the learning in context
Part 2: starter
Part 3: main teaching and learning
Part 4: plenary
8. Allow breaks for light physical activity (e.g. brain gym).
9. Use a very wide variety of teaching methods including thinking skills
and visual tools to develop higher order skills.

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 Practical classroom matters 35
10. Make learning skills such as mind mapping and memory techniques
part of your lesson.
11. Encourage students to review their own progress and set personal
goals.
12. Evaluate your lesson in consultation with your students.

Some people have argued that accelerated learning simply repre-

sents best practice in the classroom, and I have some sympathy
with this view. The leading ambassadors for the subject would
say that what marks accelerated learning out from simply good
teaching and learning is that accelerated learning takes advantage
of recent scientific findings into the brain and how it learns most
effectively.
Accelerated learning has been a particular passion of mine for
the last ten years, and for more information on accelerated learn-
ing, see my Accelerated Learning Pocketbook (Alresford: Teachers’
Pocketbooks, 2003). A more in-depth reader on the science behind
accelerated learning is Alistair Smith’s The Brain’s Behind It: New
Knowledge about the Brain and Learning (Stafford: Network Educa-
tional Press, 2002). Task 3.4 gets you thinking about how well you
embrace the principles of accelerated learning.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

The brain is 90 per cent water, and it has long been recognized that in
order to stay mentally alert, we need to drink plenty of water during the
day. The reason for the lethargy of some of your students may be that
they are dehydrated. For this reason, it is important to allow students to
drink water during your lessons. I carried out some action research in my
department on water consumption during lessons and found that it
brought many benefits to my students. As well as keeping them hydrated,
it was empowering for the students to be allowed to bring a drink into
their lessons and made them feel more grown up. Contrary to some con-
cerns by staff members, water bottles were not a distraction and quickly
just became another part of the classroom furniture alongside pencil
cases. The approach which worked best was to have each student bring
their own reusable water bottle into lessons, which they had filled up
prior to the start of the lesson. If water consumption by students is not
yet a feature of your lessons, do something about it this week! If students
are prevented from bringing water into lessons because of a school-wide
rule prohibiting it, then talk to the rule makers and show them this book.
It is one small, but significant, step that all teachers can make.

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 36 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Using music
Music should be considered a very helpful tool in promoting geo-
graphical learning. Music can be used in a wide range of ways,
both to relax and prepare students for learning, and to add an
extra dimension to the study of a particular topic. But using music
in the geography classroom is not just a matter of putting on the
radio, or listening to the latest pop songs to hit the charts; instead,
there is a science behind its successful use in the classroom. Effec-
tive use of music in the classroom is seen as an integral part of the
accelerated learning approach, by preparing students for learning.
For more about accelerated learning, see page 33.

Music for relaxation

Music can be used to help relax students so they are in a ready state
for learning. It is thought that music can help to stimulate what are
called alpha brain waves, which are characteristic of a state of relaxed
alertness which is most conducive to learning. The following pieces
of music have a regular beat of between 50 and 70 pulses per min-
ute (the same as the human heart at rest) and are ideal relaxers:

Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D Major

Debussy, Clair de Lune
Enya, most of her work
Gregorian chant, any piece
Handel, Water Music
Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 21
Vangelis, Chariots of Fire (and much else of their music)
Vivaldi, Four Seasons.

Note that these are just a sample of the many pieces of music that
could be used to relax students. It is a good idea to have a chat
with your head of music in order to explore some alternatives
that students might be familiar with from their music lessons.
If you routinely play relaxing music as students enter the
classroom, they will soon get used to this pattern and indeed
come to expect it. The playing of music can be combined with a
puzzle (e.g. anagram, word search, crossword) on the white-
board, to help prepare students for learning. Alternatively, music
related to the topic being studied could be played at the start of
the lesson (see below).

Music to promote geographical learning

Music can further be incorporated into the main part of your les-
sons in a range of ways. These include:

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 Practical classroom matters 37
Playing music from a country or region being studied: for example,
Cuban salsa music, Cajun music (from the Mississippi Delta) – this helps
students to get the feel of the culture of the place they are studying.
Playing traditional tribal music when studying rural communities in
less economically developed countries.
Music to aid memory – it is thought that playing music while a particu-
lar topic is being studied can help students to recall information about
that topic when the music is recalled.

The question of whether music should be played while students

work is an interesting one to explore. If you carry out a survey,
you will find out that practically every one of your students
works to music while at home. This raises an important question:
how natural is it for students to work in silence, as they are
expected to do in so many of their lessons? The conclusion I draw
is that there is a strong argument for allowing music to be played
while students work, at least from time to time. The need to work
in silence can, however, be seen as a key skill to acquire, and is
something that perhaps needs to be practised, not least because
students will have to do so in their examinations. Allowing stu-
dents to choose the music they listen to during periods of solo
work can also be empowering for young people, and can also be
used as a reward for good work or behaviour.

Other uses of music

Music can be used in the following additional ways:
To energize students who may be listless after a long day in the class-
room – in this case, upbeat music should be used to lift their spirits.
To provide breaks – it is good to build in brain breaks into your lessons,
and music can be used to help provide relief for students who have
been working intensively for a period of time. A variety of musical
styles can be used, but the best are those with a distinctive feel which
help to provide a sense of transition from one activity to another.
As part of a ‘concert review’ at the end of a lesson – turn the lights
down, put the music on and display images on the whiteboard per-
tinent to the topic being studied.

It is just one step further to use not just music but dance in your
geography lessons. For more about dance in geography lessons,
see page 105.
Think carefully about how you can use music in your class-
room – it can become a distinctive feature of your lessons that
your students will appreciate and has an important role in aiding
the learning process.

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 38 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Task 3.4: Do you teach accelerated learners?

Accelerated learning has the potential to have a major effect on class-
room practice, with multiple benefits for students. Consider how well
you currently embrace the accelerated learning agenda in your school,
including the use of water and music to aid learning. Which aspects of
accelerated learning do you embrace fully, which ones do you partially
embrace and which ones do you not currently embrace? Are you skep-
tical about any of the claims of accelerated learning, and, if so, where
can you learn more about these claims in order to help you make an
informed decision? Are you aware of anyone in your school who is a
passionate advocate of accelerated learning? If so, try to observe some
of their lessons to try and learn from them.

Independent learning
Independent learning is a process through which students develop
knowledge, skills and understanding through their own efforts.
Independent learning has great value in preparing students for
life after school as well as helping to give them the intrinsic motiv-
ation to succeed in their geography studies. As such, it has
immense value, and great emphasis should be placed on helping
your students to become more autonomous learners. As you help
your students to become independent learners, bear in mind the
following:

A key principle underpinning independent learning is the notion that

students accept personal responsibility for their learning.
It has many benefits to students, such as:
– It represents a more adult and realistic approach to learning which
reflects lifelong learning models.
– It encourages flexibility and good decision-making skills.
– There is a scope for different learning preferences to be
accommodated where choice is given over how to access sources
of information.
– It helps students to have greater levels of self-motivation through
freedoms and choices.
– It encourages students to develop self-evaluation skills.
Independent learning requires a shift in emphasis in your approach as
a teacher, as you move to being a facilitator of learning rather than the
person at the front of the class managing the learning process.

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 Practical classroom matters 39
Differentiation during independent learning can be achieved by vary-
ing levels of teacher support for students – getting the balance right
between extensive teacher support and fully independent work can
be difficult and requires some trial and error.
The resource implications need to be carefully thought through, in
particular:
– the need for liaison with library/resource centre staff in relation to
information, space and support.
– students’ internet skills: do they need specific training before they
can begin?
– the potential need to reorganize the classroom environment to
make it more suitable for a flexible learning set-up.
– the fact that resources may be available beyond the institution: for
example, in the local community. Consideration needs to be given
to how they will be accessed.
– how support materials will be stored and retrieved.
Special emphasis should be placed on the development of self-
evaluation skills – students need to be encouraged to reflect not just
on what they have learned but how they have learned it, so they can
improve their learning skills.
Perhaps the best example of independent learning in the geography
classroom is enquiry-based learning (see page 76).
Because it is the predominant method of learning in universities it is
vital that students – especially at A-level – have experience of it during
their school education.

Developing literacy through geography

Geography offers some wonderful opportunities to develop lit-
eracy through a range of teaching and learning strategies (see
box). As such, the subject has a major contribution to make in
developing literacy across the curriculum, complementing work
being carried out by your English department. In particular,
developing literacy in geography enables students to work on the
skill of writing with a purpose.
The importance of literacy in subjects like geography has been
highlighted by the inclusion of literacy in the key stage 3 strategy.
When developing their literacy skills in geography, students
should be encouraged to include a distinctive element of geog-
raphy in their work. In this way, they can be seen be developing
their geographical literacy.

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 40 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

The following should be born in mind about developing literacy in

geography:
In order to maximize the development of good literacy skills, SMART
targets should be set for the department, which clearly relate to whole
school objectives.
To ensure that your literacy work integrates effectively with that at the
whole school level, it is important to liaise with your literacy coordin-
ator, who will be able to provide advice on strategies as well as letting
you know the kind of work that is taking place in other departments.
You should try to tap into the CPD provided on literacy across the cur-
riculum which will help you to spot opportunities and give you lots of
ideas for lessons.
Your literacy work needs to complement work on speaking and listen-
ing which is also a critical part of the work of the geography depart-
ment (see below).
In order to improve your teaching of geographical literacy, first con-
sider how you currently teach it, and then think about how it could be
enhanced through some new actions.

Geography literacy – examples

The following examples show a range of ways in which geography
can develop students’ literacy skills:

Letter to the editor – students give their views on a geographical

issue.
Newspaper article – a 300-word concise news article on a geo-
graphical topic.
Magazine feature – a 500-word feature article providing an in-depth
focus on a particular theme.
Diary entry – a day in the life of somebody affected by a geograph-
ical issue.
Poem, rap or song – expressing in a creative way the student’s views
on a geographical issue.
Campaign manifesto – outlining what the student will do to tackle
a major geographical issue.
Short story – students prepare a short story that brings to life a geo-
graphical issue.

Developing oracy through geography

Oracy can be defined as listening, speaking and spoken inter-
action, and the subject of geography has an important role to

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 Practical classroom matters 41
play in developing students’ oracy skills. Oracy is a valuable life
skill, and within geography, students have the potential to
develop a distinctive form of oracy – geographical oracy.
The development of oracy skills has considerable value in
schools and should be carefully documented in your department.
Oracy shouldn’t be something that ‘just happens’ in lessons – it
should be an integral and explicit part of lesson planning. There
is growing evidence that children’s learning can be enhanced by
facilitating structured talk in the classroom Talking is particularly
effective because it helps students to sort out their ideas.
One of the important features of oracy is students’ growing
awareness of the language appropriate to different audiences,
purposes and situations. Students also learn to take turns and
listen to others and become proficient at appraising different
forms of speech. Oracy skills can be developed in the geog-
raphy classroom through pairwork, groupwork and whole class
teaching.
A particularly important part of geographical oracy is active lis-
tening. Individuals need to be guided to listen for information
and then be given opportunities to respond on an individual, pair
or group basis. As the teacher, you have a key role in modelling
effective listening: for example, by maintaining eye contact, hav-
ing positive body language and asking appropriate questions in
response to what you have heard.
The teaching of oracy skills should not, of course, be seen as a
bolt-on activity. It should be an integral part of every lesson and
should be planned for. In order to improve your teaching of geo-
graphical oracy, first consider how you currently teach it, and
then think about how it could be enhanced through some new
strategies.

Geographical oracy – examples

There are many ways in which oracy can be developed in the geography
classroom, including the following:

Debates
Role plays
Question and answer sessions
Listening to radio programmes
Listening to each others’ point of view

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 42 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Developing numeracy through geography

Geography has a key role to play in the development of numer-
acy skills – the ability to understand numbers and calculations.
Its inclusion as part of the key stage 3 strategy has emphasized its
role in secondary schools.
Numeracy finds a natural home in the geography department
because of the need to manipulate number data as part of the
study of the subject. The teaching of numeracy within geography
lessons should therefore be a seamless part of teaching and learn-
ing in the subject. Furthermore, students can be considered to be
developing their geographical numeracy
It makes sense, for the purposes of whole school auditing, to
document the various ways in which numeracy is developed in
geographical. You may also wish to include some notes on this in
your schemes of work. If you are need of some inspiration for
your numeracy work, team up with your whole school numeracy
coordinator or the head of maths to try to identify opportunities.
In order to improve your teaching of geographical numeracy,
first consider how you currently teach it, and then think about
how it could be enhanced through some new actions.

Geographical numeracy – examples

The following examples illustrate some of the many ways in which
numeracy can be developed through geography:

Working out percentages for population data.

Looking at climate data and plotting climate graphs.
Drawing pie charts of employment patterns.
Working out river flows from gauging station data.
Looking at economic data from cities across the world.

Using role play

Role play is an important tool in the armoury of every geographer
teacher, but is often underused, or only used on special occasions. Role
play is especially valuable because it gets students actively involved in
their learning and forces them to engage with the subject matter in a
focused way. Some issues to bear in mind about role play are as
follows:

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 Practical classroom matters 43
Role play should be seamlessly integrated into your lessons and should
not be seen as students as a bolt on or a special treat.
Role play can be used when students are arranged in pairs, small
groups or working as a whole class.
Role play is an ideal way for students to be made aware of the differing
views of people on contentious issues. This helps students to see points
of view that they may not habitually share, and perhaps enables them
to change their view when presented with additional information.
Role play does need careful setting up and monitoring by the teacher
to ensure that students are benefiting from it. Without teacher inter-
vention, it can easily become an exercise in who can speak the
loudest.
It can be fun, from time to time, to allow students to dress up in appro-
priate costume, or to bring in a prop, when involved in role-play work.
When using role play, links can be made to other areas of the curricu-
lum such as English (developing oracy skills) and drama (the perform-
ance side of role play). It may even be possible to organize joint lessons
with teachers in these departments.
Extensive support and preparation should be used with students who
are engaged in role play; otherwise it can become an exercise in guess-
work. For example, students can prepare or be provided with a fact
sheet that helps them to understand the point of view of the person
they are asked to take the part of.
Role play provides good opportunities for the teacher to take part in
the learning by acting out a part. There are links here with the ‘hot-
seating’ approach where the teacher takes the role of expert and stu-
dents ask questions to explore an issue.

Personalizing learning
The best geography departments have always had a focus on
making learning personally relevant to all students, and they
carried out much work in this critically important area long
before the government’s national ‘personalized learning’
agenda was implemented. Really successful teaching in geog-
raphy – as it is in every subject – centres on the unique, indi-
vidual needs, skills and abilities of learners and how these can
be respected and nurtured. Thankfully, the days of ‘teaching
to the middle’ are now long gone, replaced by a mission to
inspire individuals.
Personalizing learning in geography has much in common
with the drive to personalize learning opportunities in other subject

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 44 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

disciplines, sharing specific strategies and tools used in these dis-

ciplines. The overall aim is to ensure that every student achieves
their potential in geography.
The overall aim of personalized learning is to ensure that
students achieve their potential by working in a collaborative learn-
ing environment. It is different from individualized learning, where
learners work in isolation from each other. Some of the main con-
siderations for personalizing learning in geography include:

An acceptance that personalization is not a new concept and simply

builds upon what the best teachers already do – it is a mission to make
best practice universal and should be seen as a banner for tackling a
whole host of disparate issues which are important to the work of
teachers.
The ‘inner core’ of the government’s personalization framework – which
encompasses assessment for learning (see page 53), effective teaching
and learning, and curriculum entitlement and choice – has most rele-
vance to classroom geography teaching.
The most significant area of focus to achieve personalisation is effect-
ive teaching and learning – much thought should be given to how les-
sons can be made personally relevant to students.
Respect for the learning preferences of individuals – for example, visual,
auditory, wholist, analytical etc.
An awareness that learning outcomes often need to vary from one
individual to another, to ensure personalization.
The provision of choices in geographical learning enhances personal-
ization and gives students more ownership of their learning. These
choices can be linked to the nature of tasks, the speed with which
they are carried out and the method of presentation, among other
factors.
Personalization may be harder to achieve for very able students or
those who struggle to access the curriculum for a range of reasons –
such groups will need special attention.
Geography teachers can establish links with a wide range of partners
in order to enhance personalization for students – these include out-
side speakers, parents/carers and the local education authority.

Differentiation can be seen to be part of the personalization

agenda, since it concerns how material is presented to learners or
the kinds of tasks that are required of them.
Geographical learning can be differentiated in the following
ways:

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 Practical classroom matters 45
By breadth of learning – more able students can cope with more
depth.
By depth of learning – more able students can cope with more breadth.
By pace of learning – more able students can cope with more pace.
By task – tasks of varying difficulty can be set for different students.
By learning preference – for example, visual, auditory or kinaesthetic.
By outcome – for example, higher-ability students will produce more.
detailed/higher-level work, or will have additional learning outcomes
to the less able.
By stimulus material – such as by using newspaper articles instead of
teacher prepared worksheets.
By teacher support – more support is given to students of lower
ability.
By gender – different learning activities are offered which reflect the
personalities and interests of boys and girls.

The above factors can be varied by frequency as well as magni-

tude to cater for the widest range of students as possible. It is
possible to identify several groups of students for which differen-
tiation is especially necessary:

Very able students (see page 46)

Students of lower ability
Students with a special educational need
Students with dual exceptionality (e.g. very able and with a special
educational need)

Making careful choices as to how learning is differentiated in

your classroom will help ensure that you have embraced the
principles of personalization. Differentiation strategies need to be
built into lesson planning so they are not seen as a bolt on; instead
they should be considered an integral component of any lesson.
A good way of achieving this is by using the ‘more able, most,
less able’ model (as shown on page 23), whereby different learn-
ing outcomes are expected of different student groups. A vari-
ation on this theme is to consider what all students will do, what
some (more able students) will do and what a few (very able stu-
dents) will do.
The following text on differentiation for more gifted and tal-
ented (more able) students shows how differentiation can be

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 46 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

achieved within a mixed-ability classroom. The four principles

of differentiation for more able students outlined below can also
be used as a tool for differentiating learning for other student
groups (e.g. less able students) by, for example, reducing the dif-
ficulty of the task challenge. Note that using these principles,
some teachers plan their lessons ‘from the top’, by outlining
what gifted and talented students will do and how the learning
will be modified for less able students. This approach raises
expectations for all.

Differentiating for gifted and talented students

The government has championed the education of so-called
gifted and talented (G&T) students (see box) over the last decade
through extensive targeted funding and new school systems. In
most schools, G&T students represent the top 5–10 per cent of
students in each year group, so we are not talking about the
elite which you might teach once or twice in your career. It is
likely that your department will have been asked to identify
students who are more able in geography, so that these students
can be added to the school’s G&T register (which your school is
required to submit to government as part of the annual school
census every year). Even if you have not been asked to identify
a G&T cohort in geography in this way, you should do it because
it will help to ensure that learning is personalized according to
their needs.

Gifted and talented students defined

Gifted students – those who achieve (or have the ability to) significantly
above average, compared with students in their year group at your
school, in one or more of the National Curriculum subjects other than
art, performing arts and physical education.
Talented students – those who achieve (or have the ability to) signifi-
cantly above average, compared with students in their year group at
your school, in art, performing arts and physical education.

What does a gifted student in geography actually look like? Some

of the characteristics of more able students in geography are con-
tained in the box.

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 Practical classroom matters 47
Characteristics of a gifted student in geography

Is comfortable using maps and has a well-developed sense of

how a map relates to real features on the ground.
Has an innate passion for the outdoors and is inspired by natural
landscapes.
Has a deep fascination for landforms and how they are made.
Is able to empathize with the views of others, even on contro-
versial subjects.
Without prompting, is capable of asking geographically relevant
questions about places, photographs or cartoons.
Has a natural facility with fieldwork equipment.
Has an understanding of how values and attitudes can affect
how people think about an issue.

Note that a student does not have to display all of these characteristics
to be considered gifted in geography.

An excellent departmental exercise is to write what your team

understands by gifted and talented geographers in your school. This
is the best starting point for any work to target this student group.
Research has indicated that more able students in geography
thrive in lessons where:
There is ample breadth and depth to learning.
The stimulus materials are challenging.
The task challenge is high.
The pace of learning is purposeful.
There is much independent learning.

These can be seen as the five principles underpinning differenti-

ation for more able students.

Task 3.5: Inspiring gifted and talented

students in geography
Consider the five bullets points above which describe the kind of les-
sons in which G&T students thrive. Then think about a lesson you taught
recently and reflect on the degree to which you addressed each of the
factors listed. Give yourself a rating of very good, good, adequate or

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 48 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

poor for each of the four factors. A tool for recording this information is
given below. For anything you rated adequately or poorly, consider
what you will need to do in order to improve things next time. An exten-
sion exercise could involve observing a fellow teacher at work and each
person scoring the lesson as above, then comparing the results.

Lesson title Breadth/depth Challenging High task Purposeful Independent

of learning stimulus challenge pace learning
materials

The box gives an example of how learning can be differentiated

for more able students in the context of a mixed ability class-
room. This is likely to be the most common situation in which
students are found in your school.
It is important, when considering the needs of more able stu-
dents, to be on the lookout for able underachievers – namely,
those who have high ability but fail to reach their potential for a
variety of reasons.

Differentiated learning in the mixed-ability classroom

Lesson theme: Project-based learning
Learning through projects is undergoing something of a renais-
sance in schools, thanks to the relaxation of the curriculum at key
stages 2 and 3 and the government’s mission to encourage more
creative ways of engaging children in their learning. Project-based
learning centres on pupils driving learning and making their own

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 Practical classroom matters 49

creative breakthroughs, rather than working slavishly towards

learning objectives set by the teacher. The range of topics that can
be explored through projects is limitless, and we include here just
one worked example based on the theme of waste minimization in
schools.

Guidance notes
In a classroom context, a project is a learning activity that achieves
a focused objective against a timescale, usually having the follow-
ing characteristics:

A clear end result.

A fixed timescale.
Involving a team of pupils.
Involving little practice or rehearsal.
Involving a change.

Project-based learning works especially well when it takes place

in small groups and is appropriate for both mixed-ability or abil-
ity-based groupings. If mixed-ability groupings are used, then
different stimulus materials or activities of varying difficulty
need to be allocated within the group, as shown in Table 3.1. If
ability-based groups are used, then different groups can be
given stimulus materials and/or activities appropriate to their
level. Ability-based groups can also be given different questions
within the main theme of the project in order to achieve differ-
entiation, and to ensure that each child is stimulated and
stretched appropriately.
During learning of this sort, you need to be prepared to hold
back as a teacher, and let your pupils take the lead, as well as being
flexible and allowing them to leave your classroom in order to carry
out surveys, interview people or conduct further research.

Project brief
Key question → How can we reduce waste at our school?
In groups of 4 to 6, your task is to recommend ways in which waste
can be reduced at our school. At the end of four lessons, you will be
asked to present your suggestions to the rest of the class. These
suggestions need to be practical and realistic. All members of the
group must take part in the presentation.

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 50

Table 3.1 Differentiation guideline

TYPE OF FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES INTERMEDIATE ACTIVITIES HIGH-LEVEL ACTIVITIES

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DIFFERENTIATION Aimed mainly at less able pupils Aimed mainly at more able pupils Aimed mainly at very able pupils
(top 50 per cent of those in class) (top 10 per cent of those in class)

Stimulus material Pupils given a basic resource pack, including In addition to the basic resource pack, In addition to the basic and resource
one newspaper clipping, one web address pupils are given an intermediate pack and intermediate list, pupils
and a leaflet about recycling. resource list in order to carry out further are given a list of ‘open ended’, more
Pupils to consult resource pack to extract investigations. The list could include advanced research ideas, including:
information on waste and how it can be sections in books, newspaper articles - newspaper websites to search and
reduced. and websites. navigate
Pupils to consult resource pack to extract - telephone number of waste
The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

information on waste and how it can be management department of local

reduced. council
- the suggestion for a visit to the
school library
In addition, pupils are asked to find and
list their own sources of research
on this topic, including books and
websites.
Pupils to consult resource pack to
extract information on waste and how
it can be reduced.

5/18/2012 1:38:06 PM
 Task challenge Pupils given three questions: Pupils given four questions (Q1–3, plus Pupils given five questions (Q1–4, plus
Q1. What different types of waste are pro- another) another)
duced in our school? Q4. Find out what other schools are Q5. Investigate the wider issues
Q2. How much waste is produced in our doing to reduce waste. What lessons around waste management in the
school, and how it is disposed of? can we learn from this for our school? United Kingdom and across the

9781847061676_Ch03_Finals_txt_print.indd 51
Q3. How can our waste be reduced? Three of the activity suggestions in the world. What lessons can we learn
previous cell are provided. from this for our school?
The following suggestions for activities are
made to pupils: take a tour of the school, Pupils are not given any suggestions
do a survey, interview someone, ask for for activities.
specialist advice, find out which option is
most popular.
Pace Each pupil or pair in the group is assigned Each pupil or pair in the group is as- Each pupil or pair is assigned two of
one of the above questions to focus on. All signed one of the questions 1–3 to the questions 1–3 to focus on. The
findings will be collated by the group prior to focus on. The group will discuss their group will discuss their findings, and
the presentation. findings, and then all address question then all address questions 4 and 5 as
4 as a group prior to the presentation. a group prior to the presentation.
Depth/breadth Pupils identify three of the main types of Pupils identify four or more types of Pupils identify multiple types and ways
school waste (e.g. paper, metal, plastic, school waste and three ways of of reducing school waste, including
food) and suggest at least two ways that it reducing it, including ideas from other how it is tackled within and beyond
can be reduced. schools. schools in the United Kingdom and
overseas.
Independent Pupils work with frequent reference to the Pupils work with infrequent reference to Pupils work with very infrequent
learning teacher’s verbal and written guidance on the teacher. reference to the teacher, including
next steps. Pupils make frequent choices about extended periods in the school library
Pupils make some choices about learning. learning. or at home.
Pupils make very frequent choices
Practical classroom matters

about learning.
51

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 52 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Extension
Project-based learning can be extended in a range of ways. The
amount of time given over to the project can be extended to
encourage even more breadth and depth, or to allow pupils to
interact with a range of external experts including speakers and
visitors inside or beyond the school. Pupils who are interested in
this topic can be encouraged to take the ‘project’ further in their
own time – for example, by setting up a school recycling group in
order to bring about real change in their school.

Gifted and talented students represent just one student group

that you need to cater for in your lessons. Other groups include
less able students and students with special educational needs.
Each of these groups has particular needs which need to be
catered to in the classroom (see Task 3.6).

Task 3.6: Differentiation in practice

Identify three different student groups that need to be differenti-
ated for in the classroom. For each group, explain how you can dif-
ferentiate learning for them for a specific lesson? How successful
are these differentiation techniques? What are the challenges of dif-
ferentiating learning for diverse student groups, and how can these
be best overcome? What common principles underpin your differ-
entiation strategies?

Pairwork
Pairwork is a very effective tool for classroom learning and should
be used frequently. The fact that it is universally popular with
students and is guaranteed to get them talking make it a firm
friend of the geography teacher. Some of the key things to bear
in mind about pairwork are as follows:

Make sure that students get to work with different partners during the
course of the year, rather than always working with the same one.
Pairwork involving students of similar ability and students of different
ability levels both have their merits – ensure there are opportunities
for both in your classroom.
Ensure you vary the gender mix in the pairs you set up (boys and girls
often flock together when given the choice).

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 Practical classroom matters 53
It is important to keep a close eye on students working in pairs to ensure
they are on task, as pairwork provides the potential for-off task activity.
Give a clear time limit for pairwork to keep the work of the pair
focused.

Groupwork
Groupwork is another very valuable and popular tool for learn-
ing and should be a familiar feature of your lessons. Key points
to bear in mind with groupwork include the following:

As with pairwork, vary the specific composition of groupings, and set

up groups consisting of students of similar ability and also mixed
ability.
Ensure a good gender mix in the groups you set up.
To maximize student involvement, ensure that each student is assigned
a specific role during groupwork (e.g. scribe, discussion leader, time-
keeper, etc).
Be vigilant to the off-task discussion which can happen with
groupwork.
Give a clear time limit for groupwork to keep the work of the group
focused.
Groupwork provides superb opportunities for logovisual thinking (see
page 85).

Task 3.7: Pairwork and groupwork compared

Read the text on pairwork and groupwork, and then complete the
table below, which considers the pros and cons of each.

Advantages Disadvantages
Pairwork
Groupwork

What are the implications of this table for your teaching in future?
How can you introduce more pair- and groupwork into your lessons,
while at the same time ensuring that learning outcomes are met?
What do you think the balance should be of pairwork to groupwork?

Assessment for learning

What else can assessment be for? The government’s recent drive
to promote assessment for learning (AfL) has rightly encouraged

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 54 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

teachers to find ways of ensuring that assessment is used as a

careful tool to promote learning in the geography classroom.
Assessment for learning is about using evidence and dialogue
to identify where students are in their learning, where they need
to go and how best to get there. AfL can be seen as a major part
of the government’s drive to personalize learning. As part of AfL,
four strands can be identified:

Questioning – the need to put more thought into high-quality open

question that promote higher order thinking (see also page 81).
Feedback through marking – where teachers encourage students to
expand upon and show understanding of what they have learned.
Peer and self-assessment – students need to know what success looks
like and should be taught the skills of feedback and self-evaluation.
The formative use of summative tests – where students are involved in
reflective activities to review their work and prepare appropriate
strategies.

Tips to get the most out of AfL in the geography classroom include:

Take account of the five big principles of assessment for learning (see
box) as you plan and deliver lessons.
Ensure that when starting a unit of study, students know what they are
expected to learn.
Use a blend of formative and summative assessment, but find ways to
maximize the formative assessment strategies used in your classroom.
Remember that formative assessment is not intended to seek informa-
tion to assign grades and instead seeks to get feedback on what stu-
dents know so that teaching can be modified to help them learn.
Use standard and stretch targets for individuals and groups to encour-
age high performance in tests and examinations.
Always provide advice on how students can improve when marking
work, making it clear what they need to do to reach to the next level.
Provide various ways of assessing what your students have learned, in
order to respect their learning preferences, such as written tests, verbal
quizzes, question and answer sessions with visual stimulus etc.
Make displays which show examples of students’ work at a variety of
levels/grades, annotated to illustrate how the individual student has
reached a particular level.
Encourage your students to look at each others’ marked work so they
can see further examples of work at a variety of levels.
When your students have become familiar with how you mark their
work, provide them with a mark scheme, and get them to mark their
own work. If a student can do this properly, they will have a firm grasp
of what they need to do to improve their marks next time.

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 Practical classroom matters 55
Get your students to redo selected pieces of work, striving to gain the
next level/grade up when they do so.
Help your students to record the marks and comments they receive by
issuing them with a record card (see Figure 3.4). This concise summary
of their progress can help to keep track of their performance, strengths
and weaknesses in a very systematic way. It can also provide the back-
ground information for students to speak about their performance at
student review meetings, with parents in attendance (see page 106).

The five big principles of assessment for learning

The provision of effective feedback to students.
The active involvement of students in their own learning.
Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment.
Recognition of the profound influence assessment has on the
motivation and self-esteem of pupils, both of which are critical
influences on learning.
The need for students to be able to assess themselves and under-
stand how to improve.

Assessment for learning methods

A range of methods should be used to assess students’ learning and
help them to improve their geographical knowledge and skills.
They include:
Teacher marking of work
Peer marking of work
Self marking of work
End of unit tests
Quizzes
Multiple choice questions
Past papers
Electronic voting
Video diary
Reflective learning log
Diary
The best way to achieve effective assessment for learning is to blend
as many of these methods as possible into your lessons, to cater for
the widest range of learning preferences. Students need to be intro-
duced to the language of assessment for learning so they can learn
how to mark work themselves: for example, by being introduced to
criteria mark schemes.

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 56 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Name:

Form:

Geography teacher:

Figure 3.4 Student record card

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 Practical classroom matters 57
RECORD OF MARKS
Piece of
work
Date

Mark/
grade

Student comments on marks

(continued)

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 58 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

TARGETS

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Date target set _____________________________________

Target _____________________________________
Date target met _____________________________________

Figure 3.4 continued

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 Practical classroom matters 59
TEACHER COMMENTS FROM REPORTS

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 60 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Task 3.8: Assessment for learning strategies

What strategies have you used to achieve assessment for learning?
Which strategies have been most effective, and which have been not
so effective? To widen your repertoire, find out what a geography
teacher in a nearby school does to achieve assessment for learning
and observe them at work. This is an especially valuable activity
because all too often we ignore what other teachers in neighbouring
schools are doing to tackle some of the very same challenges we are
wrestling with.

Fieldwork
Fieldwork represents one of the principal joys of geography
teaching. The ability to extend learning beyond the classroom
into a range of outdoor settings provides excitement, a change of
scene and the opportunity for young people to be inspired by the
world around them. The chance to go outdoors appeals to most
students whose learning is so frequently confined to the four
walls of their classrooms. Fieldwork also allows students to
develop some specific geographical skills – such as map reading,
using compasses and the ability to read the physical landscape –
that will live with them for life. Although in recent years, health
and safety concerns have eroded some teachers’ confidence in
taking children outdoors, the campaign for real world learning
has served to re-ignite interest in such activities as fieldwork and
helped to cement them as part of the rich tapestry of learning
opportunities to which all students should be entitled.
Do not forget that your school grounds provide additional
opportunities for geography fieldwork. In addition to fieldwork
in the outdoors, geographical learning can take place in a range
of off-site locations such as visitor centres, power stations, recyc-
ling centres and museums.

Health and safety matters

We’ve all heard the familiar moans about the so-called health
and safety police, but the nature of geography fieldwork – which
is often carried out in dangerous or hazardous locations – means
that we cannot afford to be complacent. It is quite literally a life
and death matter, with on average at least one student a year
being killed or seriously injured while on a school geography
excursion. In the context of geography fieldwork, the following
points need to be stressed:

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 Practical classroom matters 61
Every geography fieldtrip should be risk assessed in order to assess
safe working practices and the ‘control measures’ that may need to be
implemented to make work for students safe. Risk assessment centres
on two factors: the severity of the risk and the likelihood of it
happening.
Before every excursion into the field (note that this, of course, also encom-
passes urban geography: cities can be as dangerous as the countryside,
especially if students are not experienced in such environments), a brief
health and safety briefing should be issued. This should highlight the key
risks and the ways in which students can stay safe.
There are some particular danger points when it comes to geograph-
ical fieldwork that are linked to physical features of the landscape –
obvious examples include students working at the top (trip and slip
hazards) or foot (danger of falling objects) of steep cliffs, working on
unstable slopes and near to or in rivers.
Special equipment should, of course, be used to help reduce risks while
out in the field – including high visibility vests, safety spectacles, hard
hats, wellington boots/hiking boots and life vests for aquatic environ-
ments. However, these can lead to complacency as the user can begin
to feel ‘invulnerable’ when wearing certain equipment.
It is easy to let health and safety matters to become so routine that
students begin to switch off – try to bring them to life with real stories
of how people have been injured in particular circumstances, or by
asking students to identify the risks themselves.
Most important of all, do not allow those who often joke about ‘elf and
safety’ undermine the seriousness of the health and safety matters
underpinning all your geography fieldwork. Complacency and light
heartedness are real risks in themselves, as this is when people’s guard
is let down.
It makes sense to build health and safety into your fieldwork policy and
to devise a motto to use with students along the lines of ‘we enjoy
fieldwork; and we carry it out safely’.
The purpose of health and safety measures are to assess risks and carry
out control measures to mitigate these risks. They are not about wrap-
ping children in cotton wool and preventing them from doing all things
which are potentially hazardous or bring with them a certain level of
inherent risk. Geography fieldwork can and often is moderately hazard-
ous – as is venturing into the great outdoors for any other reason – and
this needs to be accepted by staff, students and their parents. We can-
not eliminate all the risks in life.

Measurements using specialized equipment

Geography allows students to use some specialized equipment in
order to gather data on such things as temperature, wind speed,

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 62 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

river flow, slope angle and so on. Taking these measurements

brings students into contact with a range of equipment which
with they may not be very familiar – in some cases they will never
have seen, let alone used, some of the equipment that is utilized.
When using such equipment bear in mind the following:

Students need the opportunity to practise their skills in using such

equipment, and it is important to do this before they are actually out in
the field location gathering the all-important data.
The school grounds can provide an ideal location for students to prac-
tise their skills in using specialist equipment, making their mistakes
there rather than in the field proper and gaining the all-important
experience that will enable them be proficient field geographers when
the time comes.
Students should be taught to respect geography fieldwork equipment
in the same way as they respect science equipment.
To develop their proficiency in using fieldwork equipment, nothing is
better than you as their teacher actually demonstrating one to one or
in small groups how particular pieces of equipment work, drawing
attention to pitfalls along the way.

Questionnaires
Questionnaires are a very valuable tool in the armoury of geog-
raphers and have special relevance during fieldwork. They can
help to gather data on topics that can be difficult to sample in
other ways, such as people’s travelling patterns, shopping habits
and opinions on local issues. However, the key to effective ques-
tionnaires lies in their proper design, as poorly designed question-
naires can confuse interviewees and produce a weak data set.
Some of the issues to bear in mind when designing and conduct-
ing questionnaires include the following:

Consider data presentation at the stage of designing your question-

naires – be clear what sorts of responses will give you data that can be
graphed, charted or mapped.
Avoid too many questions that yield responses that are simply ‘yes’ or
‘no’ as these over-simplistic questions often serve to uncover import-
ant detail that is then lost from the data set.
Questionnaires can be completed face to face, but can also be done
through mailed question sheets, or those left in public places for later
collection.
When carrying out face-to-face questionnaires, keep the number of
questions to between five and ten so that you keep the interest of your
interviewees.

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 Practical classroom matters 63
Explain briefly to interviewees what your questionnaire is about, be
polite and do remember to thank all those who answer your questions
– you may need their help again in the future!

Fieldsketching
Fieldsketching is an important but often neglected skill in geog-
raphy, and it is important to find every opportunity for your stu-
dents to practise their field-sketching skills in a variety of different
settings. The basic skills of fieldsketching can be taught by using
the view from the classroom window, though students should be
given the chance to hone their skills in a range of authentic set-
tings, sketching a range of subjects from the realms of human
and physical geography. Although good fieldsketching does
require a firm grasp of some artistic skills, any student can be
helped to become a better field-sketcher. Some of the ground-
rules for fieldsketching include the following:

Draw the sketch inside a frame and put the labels outside it – use neat
lines to outline buildings, landforms and other things that can be seen,
without using shading – a fieldsketch is not meant to be a polished
piece of art.
Begin by getting students to concentrate on the main things that can
be seen without worrying about the intricate details – these can follow
when more experience has been gained.
Effective labels are as important as a good outline sketch of what can
be seen. Keep the labels reasonably concise, but include details which
help to bring to life what can be seen.
Get students to think about why they are completing a fieldsketch and
the kinds of subjects and labels that are of relevance to other geograph-
ers and laypeople.
It takes a lot of practice to become a good fieldsketcher – try to help
your students to develop this skill by providing good ‘model’ field-
sketches that you or other students have made, then give plenty of
opportunities for students to develop their own competency.

Creative approaches to fieldwork

There is a danger that geography fieldwork can become a little
regimented once all the standard methods of data collection and
topics have been exhausted. Try to spice up geography fieldwork
by including a range of creative approaches, such as:

Investigating an unconventional or whacky topic: for example, what

effect will granddad Simpson’s new greenhouse have on his street?

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 64 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Getting students to make their own sampling equipment: for example,

vegetation quadrats using coat hangers.
Asking students to devise their own fieldwork programme once they
have become experienced enough to do so.

You should aim to always keep geography fresh and maintain the
interest of your students through these approaches.

Task 3.9: Fieldwork explored

Consider the fieldwork opportunities you offer your students. Imagine
that you have to explain to an Ofsted inspector in concise terms how you
use fieldwork to promote geographical learning. Prepare a 300-word
statement that will form the basis of your explanation. Give yourself an
Ofsted rating for how well you are doing (you would find it helpful to talk
to a trained Ofsted inspector at this stage if there is one on your staff ).
How can you develop fieldwork in future? Are there any resource impli-
cations? If so, which of the funding sources in Chapter 5 might prove
helpful?

ICT in geography
The development of Information and Communication Technol-
ogy (ICT) in schools has heralded an exciting new era for teach-
ing and learning in geography. The subject of geography is ideally
placed to take advantage of a very wide range of ICT equipment
and software. The increasing number of computers found in
classrooms may mean that you are teaching at least one of your
geography lessons in a computer suite, or at the very least can
easily book such a room, or a bank of laptops.
The range of ICT tools and internet resources available to
enhance geographical learning is bewildering – not to mention
the wealth of software programmes that can enrich your school’s
virtual learning environment – and includes:

Videos (see case study on page 116)

Smart boards
Global positioning systems
Satellite navigation systems
Mobile phones
Digital cameras

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 Practical classroom matters 65
Sound recordings
Voting pads
Video conferencing
Online blogs and Twitter sites
Social networking sites

It is important to issue some basic guidelines to your students on

good practice for ICT use, especially concerning the use of the
internet (see page 66). These may be issued at the whole school
level, but should be adapted to serve the needs of the geography
department with its specific ICT tools and approaches. In particu-
lar, students need to respect the equipment they are using and
understand the purpose of using specific ICT tools so that their
time is not wasted, and the tools are not abused.
Some of the main tools and approaches for using ICT in the
geography classroom are highlighted below.

Virtual learning environments

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) are computer-based sys-
tems for supporting teaching and learning that are created and
maintained by schools. They now provide the backbone for much
of the learning content that schools make available to students.
They typically work over the internet and include a range of tools
and content that complement face to face teaching. Most schools
now have quite sophisticated virtual learning environments, and
there are many ways in which geography can make its mark on
a VLE, including the following:

Notes to accompany the taught syllabus for each year group

PowerPoint presentations, from lessons and as follow-up material
Links to popular geography websites
Students’ animations
Examples of students’ work at a variety of levels, to show what others
need to do to reach a particular level
Career advice for budding geographers
Geography in the news – information on events around the world with
a geographical theme, with links to find out more
A glossary of geography keywords

In order to keep your school’s VLE up to date with geography

content, somebody in your department needs to be made respon-
sible for passing updates to the school’s VLE manager (typically
the ICT manager). However, everybody on the geography team

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 66 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

has a role to play in providing content, and the named person

should be seen as the VLE coordinator.
VLEs can be used in very sophisticated ways as assessment
tools, by the provision of tests, quizzes and past papers – all of
which can be completed online by students and their marks fed
back to them, following teacher appraisal. In order to harness the
maximum benefit from your VLE, it is advisable to work closely
with the senior ICT staff in your school. They will be aware of far
more ways to utilize the VLE than you and can help you to create
state-of-the-art content that will inspire and enthuse students.

Harnessing the potential of the internet

There is no doubt that the internet has enormous potential to
promote effective learning in geography. However, it also has the
potential to hinder learning and allow students to become side-
tracked from the topics being studied. The following ‘golden
rules’ for internet use in geography will help your students to
gain the maximum benefit from this exciting learning resource:

The school’s general rules on internet use should be observed at all

times: for example, regarding visiting inappropriate sites.
There should always be a clear focus for internet use – students should
never simply be ‘let loose’ on the web to conduct random searches.
Surfing the web using the full resources of the Google search engine
can be very time consuming and can easily lead students into educa-
tional dead ends. A clear time limit should be placed on doing such
general internet surfing, and appropriate warnings given to students
about the potential for their time to be wasted.
The school’s VLE is a great place to filter the best geography websites
and provide links to these and a short description of the content. Page
70 gives details of a student activity that can generate suitable material,
and of course, as a teacher, you can upload details of your top picks.
Some schools choose to restrict access to a selection of websites that
are uploaded in full to the school’s intranet. While this denies students
the vast search facilities of Google, it does ensure that they only access
high-quality educational sites.
Students need to be trained to differentiate between websites of dif-
ferent quality. In particular, they need to learn to recognize the differ-
ence between official sites giving large amounts of useful information
and unofficial ones, often set up by an individual and of dubious edu-
cational value. With no quality control governing the internet, students
can easily assume that everything they read on the web is true and of

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 Practical classroom matters 67
the same quality. A good example is the comparison between the
National Hurricane Centre’s website (see page 152) and several ama-
teur hurricane-related sites which are full of adverts, incomplete links
and out-of-date information. The key here is to encourage students to
become discerning internet users. You could even issue a good prac-
tice guide for students on using websites.
The internet is a great place to publish students’ work – sample written
answers, fieldsketches, charts and diagrams, animations and videos
can all be uploaded to the geography area of the school’s VLE for use
by other students. The fact that the content can be accessed at home
means that students’ learning can easily be extended beyond the
school day.
Some of the best sites to visit have been set up by fellow geography
teachers – juicy geography being a classic example (see page 150).

YouTube as an educational resource

The ever popular site YouTube (www.youtube.com) can be a
very valuable teaching resource if used judiciously. There are lit-
erally tens of thousands of video clips which are suitable for use
in geography classrooms. One of many advantages of YouTube is
the way in which it brings you right up close to the action by
being filmed by somebody on the spot. Some examples of using
YouTube include:

Analysis of weather phenomena: tornadoes, hurricanes, cloud

patterns.
Studying natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes and
tsunamis.
Looking at what various cities have to offer the resident and the
visitor.
Considering the impact of leisure pursuits on the natural
environment.

YouTube is increasingly also the place to go to find educational videos

which have been posted by fellow geography teachers or by people
working in universities. Just one example of this is an excellent video
that explains the geographical seasons which can seen at www.you-
tube.com/watch?v=taHTA7S_JGk, and includes professional sounding
audio as well as top-notch optics. There are also many very fine video
clips and PowerPoint presentations that can be used to good effect in
starter episodes of lessons.

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 68 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

When using YouTube, there are some obvious pitfalls to be wary of, not
least the vast number of trashy videos that have been posted. One way
round this is to filter out a selection of the best and include links to
these on the school’s VLE, thereby cutting down on internet ‘clutter’
and wasted searches.

Mobile phones in the geography classroom

We are used to hearing about inappropriate uses of mobile phones
in schools, but how about using them for some appropriate uses
too? It is important that we help students to recognize that their
phones can be valuable tools for learning, as well as communica-
tion devices. Here are some ideas to try out with your classes:

Ask your students to prepare a mind map showing the various ways in
which mobile phones can be used to help them learn. The main
branches are likely to include mention of telephone calls/texts to find
things out, visits to educational content on the internet, and the taking
and receiving of photos or moving footage.
Get your students to take some photographs around the school
grounds through their mobiles and have them label these up with suit-
able annotations, on computer or by hand after printing. Make sure
that there are some mobiles on hand for students to use in case they
don’t have their own (unlikely today, but you don’t want to make any
student feel left out). A class project could see a photo montage cre-
ated presenting an overview of an important geographical issue – such
as environmental quality across the school or community.
Film some interviews about important local geographical issues –
these might be with other students, staff or members of the commu-
nity (perhaps an MP or business leader). These can be later uploaded to
the school’s VLE, together with some analysis of what has been said.
Those carrying out the interviews will need to give their permission
before the interviews are posted online. The interviews can form part
of a wider piece of work – an enquiry perhaps – into a wider issue
Instead of using computers to access the internet, try getting your stu-
dents to use their mobiles instead, to illustrate a learning point or as part
of some research. You may want to allow this in small groups at one time
only, using departmental phones that you can set filters on.
The recent increase in the amount of news footage taken with
mobiles – especially that taken from disaster zones before film crews
arrive – hints at a new era when footage shot by the general public is
entering the mainstream of broadcasting. Get your students to con-
sider the pros and cons of geographical news coverage captured by

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 Practical classroom matters 69
mobile phone. In what types of situations would it be helpful, and
when might it be a hindrance? What are the dangers in trying to main-
tain accuracy and impartiality in broadcasting such footage? Could it
eventually lead to the end of most news film crews?
Some of the GPS mapping functions of the latest generation of mobile
phones make them valuable tools for geographical work involving
places and people’s relationship to those places. The use of direction-
finding software provides just one example of how mobile phones are
already changing the way people are taking advantage of the new tech-
nology, and this in turn is changing the way they interact with the world.
Could these new devices actually be producing ‘lazy geographers’?

These approaches to using mobile phones are dependent on stu-

dents being able to bring their own phones into lessons. If your
school is one of the small number that do not allow mobiles to be
brought in by students, then you may need to talk to the deci-
sion-makers about the rationale for this, now that the value of
mobiles as tools for learning has been clearly demonstrated. Per-
haps your department could even become the test bed for illus-
trating the value of mobile phones in the classroom?
The above examples suggest that getting a small number of
mobiles for your department seems like a very sensible idea, now
that they are such ubiquitous consumer items. Because they now
can be bought so cheaply, this shouldn’t break your departmen-
tal piggy bank!

26 ideas for using ICT in geography lessons

While most of the ideas below will render material which is suitable for
uploading to the school’s VLE, some ideas are especially suitable, and
these are indicated in the text.

1. Provide the caption

Students are shown an image taken from a website and asked to pro-
vide a caption that conveys the geographical meaning of the image.
2. What happened next?
Students are shown a short video clip on a geographical theme and are
challenged to guess what happened next. Good examples are natural
hazard videos.

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 70 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

3. Which country is this?

Students are shown a series of images taken in a country and are asked
to identify the name of the country in question. Clues can be provided
by including photos of familiar landmarks or buildings. This exercise
can be made more challenging by showing students an unconven-
tional image of the country: for example, a smart residential part of a
city in an economically less-developed country.
4. Photospot
Students take photos with a digital camera in the local community to
illustrate geographical topics (e.g. landforms, features of the urban
landscape), which are then annotated with appropriate labels using a
drawing program.
5. Videoclip
Students make a short video that illustrates a particular geographical
issue which is played to the other students in the group who have to
describe and explain what the issue is.
6. Website review
Students are allocated a geographical website and have to produce a
500-word review of the site, assessing its strengths and weaknesses.
They complete the exercise by giving the site a star rating out of five.
The reviews can be uploaded to the school’s VLE to help signpost stu-
dents to suitable websites which will help their study of geography.
See also activity 18.
7. True or false?
Students are given a series of geographical statements and are chal-
lenged to visit appropriate websites in order to determine whether
they are true or false.
8. Design a website
Using a simple website template, students are given the job of design-
ing a basic website which explores a suitable topic in geography. They
can use the Google image search engine to find appropriate images to
include in their website.
9. Environmental quality
Students go out into the community armed with digital cameras in
order to gather evidence about the environmental quality of the local
settlement, both positive and negative. The litter hotspots activity out-
lined below represents just one component of environmental quality.
The images are compiled into a PowerPoint presentation to be shown
to other students in the group. An extension activity would be to select
the best examples to be shown to town/city councillors in order to
spark efforts to improve local environmental quality. The litter hotspots

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 Practical classroom matters 71
activity challenges students to find the worse places for litter in their
community and take photos to record their location.
10. Spot the difference
Two images are taken of the same place on different days, and students
are asked to spot the differences and suggest reasons for these. The
images should support a geographical topic of some sort (e.g. people
shopping on a high street, the sky complete with clouds, river flow
conditions).
11. YouTube top five
Students are given a range of YouTube videos to review and are asked
to compile a top five in terms of their value for geographical learning.
The top-rated sites can then be added to the school’s VLE.
12. Label the photo
Students are given a series of geographically themed photos and a
bank of labels. Using a drawing package, they are asked to put the cor-
rect labels on the photos on the right places.
13. Odd one out
Four photographs are projected onto a screen, and students are chal-
lenged to guess which is the odd one out. The images are selected by
the teacher to illustrate a particular geographical topic.
14. News broadcast
Students film a news broadcast with a script they have written them-
selves on a geographical theme. Natural hazards or environmental
issues are a particularly suitable topic for such news broadcasts. The
broadcasts are shown to the rest of the group, and the best examples
can be uploaded to the school’s VLE.
15. Interview with an expert
Students film an interview with a local expert on a geographical topic.
This person could be a businessperson, scientist or charity worker. The
broadcasts are shown to the rest of the group, and again, the best
examples can be uploaded to the school’s VLE.
16. Students’ views
Students film short sequences explaining the views of individual stu-
dents on a geographical topic: for example, the building of a new
supermarket or bypass. The sequences are shown to the rest of the
class before a group vote is carried out to determine the views of the
class on whether the development should go ahead. A selection can
be uploaded to the school’s VLE.
17. Hotspots
Students head out with digital cameras into the local community to
find out where the geographical hotspots are and the reasons for

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 72 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

these. Photos are taken which are then shared with local councillors in
an attempt to improve the situation in the community. This could
include litter hotspots and can also be adapted for other local issues
such as pedestrian hotspots and parking problems.
18. Website reviews again
Over the course of two lessons and homework time, students are given
five geography-related websites to review. They are asked to review
the sites for:
– the ease of navigation
– the quality of images and other graphic information
– the quality of the geographical information
A template for doing this is shown in Figure 3.5. Different websites are
given to different students in the group, and the top rated sites can be
added to the school’s VLE to build up the number of weblinks to suit-
able sites.
19. Animations
Students are challenged to produce short animations on a geographical
theme using a simple animation package. These could range from anima-
tions which show the dynamics of the weather to a model of the growth
of urban areas. Inspiration can be gained by studying some of the excel-
lent YouTube animations of a geographical nature. Again, the best can be
uploaded to the school’s VLE to act as revision tools for other students.
20. Webcam central
In pairs, students are directed to a webcam site that records geography-
related content. They are asked to rate out of ten the value of the site in
terms of its appeal to geography students, giving reasons. Students then
use PowerPoint to prepare a presentation of the good and bad features
of the webcams (labelled photos work well), and the best webcam sites
can then be selected for uploading to the school’s VLE. Some interesting
websites include those showing traffic movements in cities, river flow
conditions, and images of people playing and relaxing on beaches.
21. BBC iPlayer top picks
Students are challenged to find five programmes on BBC iPlayer which
are of use to geography students. A short presentation to the rest of
the class justifying their choices is the prelude to a selection of videos
being used throughout the course of the year when the appropriate
content is studied. This is an example of an ICT-related activity which
can save time for the teacher as the students are locating suitable
material for later classroom use.
22. Wikipedia entry
Students are asked to write an article on a chosen geographical topic
in the style of a Wikipedia entry (Wikipedia is a free internet-based

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 Practical classroom matters 73
encyclopedia written by the online community – available at www.wiki-
pedia.org). The spirit of Wikipedia entries is that they are concise, accurate
and free of bias. This task will require students to understand the topic in
question and explain it in a jargon-free way to a non-specialist audience.
Students can include in their article visuals they have made themselves as
well as graphics sourced from the internet.
23. A room with a view
Students take a photograph through their bedroom window, down-
load it into a computer drawing program and add labels to show any
pertinent geographical features. These can relate to urban or rural
issues as dictated by the view through the window. Students print out
the labelled photo and share it by pinning it to a large board, allowing
others to learn about the geographical features visible through their
bedroom window.
24. Draw a diagram
Students are challenged to draw a geographical diagram of their choice
on a computer drawing package. The diagram can be sourced from a
textbook or the students’ notes (not the internet). The diagram should be
carefully labelled to make it intelligible to a layperson.
25. Communicating with the world
Students are asked to find an online pen-friend in a less economically
developed country and email them about the geography of their home
area. There are some excellent sites moderated by adults which can be
used to locate suitable pen-friends, which you should use to ensure
your students’ internet safety. Some very meaningful correspondence
has resulted from this type of email pen-friending, which has even
resulted in some exciting student exchanges to the far corners of the
world. One of the best sites is extensive and well-established www.
epals.com, which offers many geographical topics as well as resources
to guide students through the communication process.
26. What’s your view?
A debate is held into a controversial issue in geography. Then, using
computer activated voting units, students register their views which
are displayed on the screen. A student on each side of the argument is
then asked to justify their views, and the class then votes again, with
the potential for their opinions now to have changed due to the justifi-
cations given.

Some excellent guidance on using ICT in geography has been pro-

duced by the Department for Education and Schools in the form of
a CD-ROM which contains worked examples of how ICT can be
used in diverse classroom settings. A printed guide to the subject,

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 74 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Website address
Date reviewed
Positive features Negative features
Could include refer-
ence to reliability of site,
how old it is, how up to
date the information is,
attractiveness of site etc.
Ease of navigation

The quality of images

Quality of geographical
information
Star rating /5

Figure 3.5 Website review

part of the ICT Across the Curriculum initiative, can also be accessed
at http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/96022.

Geographical information systems

Geographical information systems (GIS) are sophisticated digital
tools that allow the user to see various layers of geography infor-
mation for a specific portion of the planet. The role of geograph-
ical information systems is so significant that a whole sub-branch
of geography – geographical information science – is now devoted
to the study of the subject.
For many, GIS is only just starting to be introduced into geog-
raphy lessons, but in the more advanced schools, it is already
proving to be a powerful tool for learning. Key pointers for GIS
are as follows:

The ability to understand a GIS depends partly on students’ map-read-

ing skills, so it is important to address this aspect of your students’
geography competence before starting any work on the more com-
plex world of GIS.
GIS has the potential to touch many areas of the geography curricu-
lum, as well as breathing new life into mapwork. For example, studies
of urban development can be illuminated by looking at bus routes, the
location of local services and traffic flows.
Many of the packages available are quite complex to navigate around,
so it is wise to select a program which is designed with young people

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 Practical classroom matters 75
in mind. A program which is designed to be easily navigated by even
GIS novices is the Ordnance Survey’s Mapzone (see below).
GIS is in use today in a wide range of public and private-sector organ-
izations in fields such as urban planning, marketing, economic devel-
opment, business planning, resource exploration, defence operations,
conservation and environmental impact assessment. It is important
that students understand the real-life applications of GIS and the
people that use GIS as a tool as part of their job.
An excellent online introduction to GIS is available at http://mapzone.
ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/index.html. It includes a real-life deci-
sion-making exercise which shows students how GIS can be used in an
authentic setting.

The value of GIS in schools can be demonstrated by the fact that

Ofsted has identified that some of the best teaching using ICT in
schools comes in the form of GIS-related work.

Task 3.10: Using ICT in your lessons

Study the text on ICT on the preceding pages. Identify five new teach-
ing and learning strategies using ICT that you intend to use in the next
half-term. You may find it helpful to talk to your ICT manager if there
are technical issues to address for your chosen methods. After you
have used them, assess how successful they were, then choose another
five strategies for the next half-term and repeat the exercise. Present
the results of your work to other members of your department (per-
haps using a mini PowerPoint presentation), and ask for their feedback
on their favourite ICT methods.

Coursework
Coursework has traditionally provided a significant proportion of
the marks available for GCSE and A-level examinations. This, in
turn, has led to students carrying out an element of fieldwork.
The recent changes to coursework, however, have weakened its
position and reduced the impact of fieldwork on the overall
make-up of examinations.
The phasing out of coursework in GSCE and A-levels does not
mean that project work which was previously categorized as course-
work can no longer be carried out. There is a very strong argument
for including at least one long enquiry-type project (see below)
at both GCSE and A-level, which results in a lengthy report. In

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 76 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

particular getting your students used to the discipline of producing

lengthy and carefully structured reports is a very useful lifeskill.
The production of coursework and project-related reports has
many benefits. It has a way of galvanizing students into produ-
cing high-quality work, and it is likely that in your school some
of the best work ever carried out by geography students has been
on coursework and project-related reports.
Given appropriate support, students are often highly moti-
vated by extended projects, as they can gain a high degree of
ownership of the learning as they work their way through the
different stages of a project. They also generally take a great deal
of pride in producing a polished and well-presented report. Note
that there are now few other subjects (if any) which allow stu-
dents to work on extended projects of this sort, despite it being
an important life skill.

Geographical enquiry
Geographical enquiries are one of the most distinctive features of
the teaching of the subject. They allow students to work through
a series of learning steps at their own pace, making new discover-
ies about the subject matter as they do so. Geographical enquiries
typically follow a six-stage process beginning with the posing of
the enquiry question and ending with an evaluation of the work
done (Figure 3.6).

Enquiry question

Data collection

Data presentation

Data interpretation

Conclusion

Evaluation

Figure 3.6 The route to geographical enquiry

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 Practical classroom matters 77
EXAMPLE ENQUIRY
The following worked example of an enquiry illustrates how students
can follow the enquiry sequence while studying a specific topic.

Enquiry question/introduction: should a wind turbine be built on a

windy hill?
Data collection: students should collect the following data – the views
of the turbine company; opinions of local people; photographs of the
site to be annotated with the turbine in place; data on effects of tur-
bines on wildlife, including bird strike rates.
Data presentation: to include annotated photographs of in situ
turbine; views of local people and effects on local wildlife pre-
sented in pie charts, bar charts and line graphs; facts and figures
from the turbine company presented in an easily understood
graphic format.
Data interpretation: text description and explanation of what the
graphs, charts and photographs presented show.
Conclusion: overall cost-benefit analysis of whether the turbine should
be built.
Evaluation: in which the students review their work, pointing out
strengths and weaknesses and highlighting areas for improvement.

Other Classic Enquiry Topics

The following enquiry questions can provide the starting point for
some stimulating lessons. In some places, specific place names have
been inserted where there are many alternatives that could be used. In
general, the more local the topic of the enquiry, the better, as it gives it
most relevance to students’ lives.

– Should the proposed new supermarket be built on the outskirts of

town?
– Should a new bypass be constructed to ease traffic congestion in
the centre of town?
– Should the number of visitors to the tourist honeypot site of Mal-
ham be restricted in order to safeguard the site?
– Should a new oilfield be opened up in the North Sea?
– Should commercial whaling be allowed to go ahead now that
stocks of some whales have recovered?
– Should the government provide a grant for a new call centre to be
built on a brownfield site on the edge of the city?
– Should new sea defences be built to protect vulnerable villages on
the north Norfolk coast?

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 78 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

– Should Britain reduce further its carbon dioxide emissions to

respond to the challenge of global warming?
– Should the proposed housing development be allowed to go
ahead on the edge of the floodplain of the river Severn, near
Gloucester?
The lesson stimuli on the accompanying website also contain many
ideal starting points for enquiries.

You should build many enquiries into your geography lessons.

Students should be familiar with their structure and the skills
needed to carry out each part of the enquiry successfully. The
skills of enquiry are valuable life skills in themselves and can be
used throughout a student’s life to help them solve problems.
Enquiries are also highly suitable for being the subject of
student presentations as they generate visually stimulating
material as well as having a high level of geographical content.
Students should be given the chance to prepare PowerPoint
presentations of their enquiries where possible, and encour-
aged to include charts and photographs which help bring the
topic to life.
The enquiry-based approach is ideal to give your students an
extended piece of work to be worked on for a number of lessons
to develop their independent working skills. Once students are
engaged in such an enquiry, the role of the teacher shifts from
being the main orchestrator of learning – to being the person who
assists individuals as they work through the tasks – at their own
pace. The enquiry-based approach allows students to ask deep
questions about the subject matter and carry out their own real-
life data gathering. As such, it has sometimes been called ‘real
world’ learning. The approach places great emphasis on students
taking ownership of their learning, and it fits well with the cur-
rent drive to put students at the heart of the learning process. It is
an excellent example of independent learning (see page 38).
The enquiry will lead to the production of a high-quality report
which the students can be proud of, and which can serve as a
template for report writing in students’ wider lives once they
have left school. The report can be of a variety of lengths as deter-
mined by the teacher, ranging from concise reports of a few pages
in length to more extensive reports which explore the topic in
considerable detail.

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 Practical classroom matters 79
Task 3.11: Using enquiries in your classroom
Think about the range of geographical enquiries you offer your stu-
dents. Which ones work best? Try to identify why they are successful.
Use these principles to plan a new enquiry which is designed to really
stretch students’ thinking. You may find it helpful to look back to the
text on gifted and talented students (page 46). Discuss your plans with
the other members of your department and get their feedback before
starting the new enquiry. When you have completed the enquiry, ask
your students for their feedback on how much they enjoyed it and how
much they feel they learned from it.

Thinking skills
Geography has a special role to play in the development of so-
called thinking skills. This is due in part to the nature of the sub-
ject and also the publication of some excellent resources to
support the teaching of thinking skills, most notably Thinking
Through Geography and More Thinking Through Geography publica-
tions (Cambridge: Chris Kington Publishing, 1998 and 2000).
Thinking skills are skills that promote reflection and more
incisive thinking, enabling learners to know ‘how’ as well as
‘what’, thereby helping them learn how to learn. The key stage 3
strategy included specific mention of five categories of thinking
skills which were embedded in the National Curriculum (see
box). This has led to an enhanced place for thinking skills in the
curriculum. Note the inclusion of a specific strand covering
enquiry skills; enquiry-based learning is a key part of any geog-
raphy curriculum (see page 76).

National Curriculum thinking skills

Information processing skills
These enable learners to:
– Locate and collect relevant information
– Sort, classify, sequence, compare and contrast
– Analyse part/whole relationships
Reasoning skills
These enable learners to:
– Give reasons for opinions and actions
– Draw inferences and make deductions

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 80 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

– Use precise language to explain what they think

– Make judgements and decisions informed by reasons or
evidence
Enquiry skills
These enable learners to:
– Ask relevant questions
– Pose and define problems
– Plan what to do and how to research
– Predict outcomes and anticipate consequences
– Test conclusions and improve ideas
Creative thinking skills
These enable learners to:
– Generate and extend ideas
– Suggest hypotheses
– Apply imagination
– Look for alternative innovative outcomes
Evaluation skills
These enable learners to:
– Evaluate information
– Judge the value of what they read, hear and do
– Develop criteria for judging the value of their own and
others’ work or ideas
– Have confidence in their own judgements.

The following should be born in mind about thinking skills in

geography:

Thinking in geography comes in many types and forms, and all these
types of thinking can be developed and improved through specific
exercises.
Thinking needs to be practised as much as possible as this is only way
to improve the quality of thinking taking place in geography class-
rooms – in short, you need to find time for thinking skills.
Students need to be taught the language of thinking so they can
understand what thinking in geography is about and how they can do
it more effectively.
Thinking is best taught where it is infused into geography content,
rather than taught as a specific skill.
There are distinctive ways of thinking in geography which are different
to those in other subject disciplines – explain these modes of thinking
to your students so they can gain an impression of the distinctive
modes of thought in the subject.

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 Practical classroom matters 81
You need to model effective thinking as a geography teacher, for
example, by pointing out through an audible commentary how you
are thinking about geographical issues and coming to the conclusions
you are making.

An essential principle in the teaching of thinking skills is the need

to move your students from lower to higher-order thinking. A
simple model, devised in the 1950s by US psychologist Benjamin
Bloom, helps to illustrate the different levels of thinking – it is
now known as ‘Bloom’s taxonomy’. Bloom actually called his
hierarchy ‘a taxonomy of educational objectives in the cognitive
domain’, and he devised it as a way of classifying educational
goals, showing how learning can be deepened by using higher-
order thinking skills. Figure 3.7 suggests prompt questions that
can be used to develop each of the thinking levels for specific and
general topics. Figure 3.8, Bloom’s learning rose, goes further by
suggesting keywords for each thinking level and examples of
tasks that can be done at each level.
Some criticisms of Bloom’s taxonomy have centred on the
belief that the levels are not hierarchical, or that the lower three
levels are and upper three are not. However, Bloom’s taxonomy
has been very influential and remains a cornerstone of peda-
gogical theory. It will serve as a key reference point as you strive
to move your students from lower- to higher-order thinking.

Thinking type Specific prompt question General prompt questions

Evaluation Should we all recycle Which is the best solution?
our household waste? How easy was that?
Synthesis What conclusions can What does this all add up to?
you draw from your What are the main conclusions?
previous answers
about waste recycling?
Analysis For three types of
How much harder was that than the last
waste explain how
time we did it?
each is recycled and
What are the reasons for the shift in
the benefits this brings
position?
Application What kind of waste is
How could we use that in another way
most easily recycled?
to help our learning?
How can you take advantage of that to
address this problem?
Comprehension Compare the benefits Explain how that works?
of recycling waste What are the results of the experiment?
Knowledge What are the benefits What facts do you know about that?
of recycling household What were the main points made by the
waste? interviewee?

Figure 3.7 Questions to develop thinking

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 82 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

A key part of the thinking skills approach concerns so-called

metacognition or thinking about thinking. Metacognition has
been shown to be particularly effective in getting students to
think more incisively and can easily be built into review periods
in lessons. Metacognition typically happens at the end of a unit
of work or lesson. The kind of questions that should be asked
during metacognitive reflections include:
Why did we do it that way?
What were we thinking when we did it?
Did this help us to answer the question?
What other things did we have in mind when we were thinking about
the question?
How might we do things better next time?
What have we learned from this exercise?

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Figure 3.8 Bloom’s learning rose

Created by K. Aainsqatsi and reproduced with permission. Original licensed
under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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 Practical classroom matters 83
Metacognition represents a high-level thinking skill and equates
best to the ‘evaluate’ level of Bloom’s taxonomy. The very valu-
able nature of metacognition demands that we strive to find ways

Metacognition in practice
A year 9 class was studying a unit of work on earthquakes, which contrasted
their effects on more and less economically developed countries. At the
end of the unit, the students were asked to engage in a metacognitive
reflection on the unit of work they had studied which focused on the type
of thinking they had carried out at different periods of the study unit. The
teacher chose three distinct tasks that were carried out by the students and
asked them to record for each the kind of thinking that they were doing
and how this helped them to do the task. The students were also chal-
lenged to think about how they could have approached the task differently
through alternative types of thinking and whether this would have helped
them to do the task any better. After writing their answers down, a whole
class discussion took place, with the teacher writing some of the students’
responses in a grid on the whiteboard. A final task asked students to con-
sider what they had learned from the exercise about their thinking and how
this might help them in their future geographical studies.

Task 3.12: Thinking skills explored

Study the text on thinking skills, paying close attention to the text on
Bloom’s taxonomy. Then think about your last week of teaching, and
consider the opportunities you gave students to use the various think-
ing levels in Bloom’s taxonomy, completing the table as you do so.

Thinking type Examples of opportunities provided

Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation

It is likely that there will be more opportunities to develop the

lower-thinking levels, even though it is the higher levels of thinking
that really stretch students. Consider what you can do to include
more higher-level thinking in your lessons. Which prompt ques-
tions can you use to help elicit higher-level thinking?

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 84 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

TASC
TASC stands for Thinking Actively in a Social Context and is a way of
approaching learning using a problem-solving wheel. The brainchild of
Belle Wallace, TASC has recently been introduced into secondary schools
following several years of highly successful use in the primary sector.
The TASC approach has much merit, and it is well worth devoting some
lessons to using the approach with your students. One of the key bene-
fits of TASC is that it encourages students to ask relevant questions
about learning and also teaches the cross-curricular skills of problem-
solving in a highly structured way. Students who have been introduced
to TASC are better equipped to become effective problem-solvers in the
real world, as well as in their lessons. There is a substantial body of
research backing up the benefits of using TASC in the classroom, and it
is a strategy that is well worth investigating. Courses are run on the
topic across the country, and an online version of TASC is available at
www.tascwheel.com, with extensive support materials. TASC has spe-
cial relevance to geography lessons, with their emphasis on enquiry
skills and extensive requirement for problem-solving (Fig. 3.9).

from Gathe
arn ce r/O
Le erien r ga
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xp
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What have What do I
I learned? know about
ate

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Ide
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Let’s tell What is

someone! the task?

TASC
How many
How well ideas can I
ate
Eval

did I do? think of?

ner
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ate

Ge

Let’s Which
do it! is the best
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Im
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Cop
yright © 2000
B elle Wallace

Figure 3.9 The TASC problem-solving wheel

Copyright © Belle Wallace 2000, used with permission (www.tascwheel.
com)

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 Practical classroom matters 85
to build such reflections into as many lessons as possible. The box
shows how this might be achieved in practice.

Logovisual thinking
Logovisual thinking (LVT for short) is a tool and methodology to
improve learning in classrooms. The equipment needed is as sim-
ple as a set of post-it notes and some flipchart paper, though more
robust versions are available that are reusable and will last years.
Logovisual thinking encourages learners to share their ideas
by recording them on moveable objects (e.g. post-it notes). These
are then organized on a display surface (e.g. flipchart paper),
often in the form of a concept map. LVT usually follows five steps
as follows:

Focus: a stimulus question focuses students’ attention on the task in

hand.
Gather: the ideas are recorded on post-it notes.
Organize: some structure is given to the ideas, typically by clustering
them together.
Understand: conclusions are drawn about the ideas generated, using
the higher-order thinking skill of synthesis. At this stage, the ideas are
usually arranged in some form of diagram or flowchart, which shows
the links between them.
Apply: here the ideas generated are used to carry out some other spe-
cific task: for example, writing an essay, producing a report, preparing
a presentation.

LVT has been likened to a sophisticated form of brainstorming by

some people. It actually goes several steps further than brain-
storming by doing something concrete and meaningful with the
ideas generated, in order to create breakthroughs in thinking.
An example of a student output generated through LVT is
included in Figure 3.10.
LVT has been successfully introduced into geography class-
rooms over the last decade, with very powerful results. Teachers
report that it increases students’ motivation, helps to keep them
on task and allows them to develop their creativity and higher-
order thinking skills. It is certainly an approach that is designed
to get your students working and thinking collaboratively.
I have made a special study of LVT over the past ten years, and
the key reference source to learn more about the approach is
Making Meaning: learning through logovisual thinking by myself,

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 86 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

PROBLEMS OF LIVING IN CITIES

Pollution is a major High crime rate can

issue make life difficult

Litter on High
streets burglary rate

Factory Muggings
emissions on streets
Car Theft is a
exhaust continual
fumes problem

There are inequalities

The city is overcrowded
between people

Shoppers
Jobs are create a
not always weekend
available Some parts rush
The city is
Public of the city
full of
transport are in poor
commuters
can be limited state of
Housing can repair Housing
be in short can be
supply cramped

Figure 3.10 LVT lesson example (Note that in this example the students have
carried out the stages Focus, Gather and Organize. The stages of Understand
and Apply will follow later on.)

John Varney and Anthony Blake (Cambridge: Chris Kington

Publishing, 2005). It contains worked examples of how LVT has
been used to add value to classrooms across the country. You can
order robust equipment (dry wipe magnetic shapes of a variety of
shapes and sizes and dry wipe boards to display them on) from
the Centre for Management Creativity – see www.logovisual.
com for more details and lots of additional information about
LVT, including many free articles and case studies.

Mind maps
Mind mapping is a way of representing and organizing thoughts
in a radiant manner which fits with the way in which memory

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 Practical classroom matters 87
and learning are constructed. Mind maps have been around for
centuries; indeed Leonardo da Vinci was using a form of mind
mapping in the sixteenth century.
You should find every opportunity to enable your students to
draw mind maps. Bear in mind the following about mind maps
as you do so:

Mind mapping develops from radiant thinking. This is an associative

process of developing ideas and connecting them. Mind maps provide
a way of visually recording and organizing ideas which relate to each
other.
Mind maps are especially useful for students who are intuitive thinkers
or who favour visual methods of learning (see page 31).
Mind maps bring with them many benefits:
– They promote creative thinking
– They help communicate complicated ideas
– They aid your memory
– They organize your thinking
– They help you make new associations between ideas
– They can help you learn more quickly and efficiently
The excellent software programme Inspiration allows students to pre-
pare electronic mind maps – see www.inspiration.com for details.

An example of a mind map is shown in Figure 3.11.

Drawing mind maps

Follow the five steps to draw a mind map:
1. Start with a key word that represents the topic you are think-
ing about. Place this in the centre of a blank sheet of paper,
and add an image that associates with this word.
2. Draw lines radiating out from this central image, and write
words along the lines that you associate with the central idea.
Add images alongside these words, and use colour to make
them stand out and be memorable.
3. If you come to a halt, add several blank lines and leave them,
to be completed later.
4. Take each idea which you developed from the central theme
and add further lines to them, writing words along the lines
that you associate with these ideas. You are now building a
second level of association.
5. Continue the process until your mind map is completed, then
look for patterns and connections between ideas, perhaps
adding links between several ideas in the map.

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 88 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

n
bur
Re
s
tow idents

nd
ns
and of ne

a
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citie arby Cat
tle r

Sla
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anc Mining

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Indige le a ts
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Managing Tropical Rainforests

Ma
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In
tri

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Va

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ic loita

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Selective
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ag
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Figure 3.11 Example mind map: Managing tropical rainforests

Dilemma-based learning
Dilemma-based learning is concerned with the exploration of
problems that society has to face, and is especially suited to geo-
graphical learning. Dilemma-based learning is about carrying out
an enquiry about what it means to make a wise choice. It requires
learners to consider their thinking and make appropriate choices.
Some of main features of dilemma-based learning are as follows:

Dilemma-based learning encourages students to engage in a specific

form of enquiry (see more about enquiry-based learning on page 76).
The main value of dilemma-based learning lies not in the acquisition of
content knowledge, but in the development of learning to learn skills
which are acquired en route to the resolution of the dilemma.
It can be carried out alone or in small pairs, but is most suitable for
small group work.
It works best in classrooms where students are used to collaborative
learning and groupwork – otherwise the approach needs to be intro-
duced gradually, in adult-facilitated groups.

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 Practical classroom matters 89
It can be helpful to assign roles to the group members to ensure greater
engagement in the exercise and to promote on-task behaviour, for
example, by having a time keeper and a group facilitator (who keeps
track of how the group is working together).
Over time, groups will be able to become more autonomous, and the
need for roles will be less of a necessity.
It helps students to carry out higher-level thinking skills, such as the
skills of creative thinking and decision-making.
There is often no clear-cut solution to dilemmas – indeed some of the
most effective thinking in considering dilemmas comes from close
consideration of various alternative solutions.
Different groups should not be expected to come up with the same
conclusions, but should be prepared to justify their conclusions.
It works best when carried out towards the end of a unit of work, so
that students have some detailed knowledge of the subject matter
being considered.
It has close links to thinking skills, as in order to come up with appropri-
ate decisions on how the dilemma should be solved, it is necessary to
engage in a range of different types of thinking.

A worked example of dilemma-based learning is included in the

box to show how it may be incorporated into a lesson.

Dilemma-based learning case study

The following example shows how dilemma-based learning was con-
ducted in a geography classroom.
Should a new bypass be built around our town? The focus for the
dilemma was to consider whether a new bypass should be built around
a rural market town. As with any such development, the new road
would bring with it advantages as well as disadvantages to the rural
community they are intended to serve, and for visitors.
Introduction – the topic for the dilemma-based learning activity was intro-
duced to the class via a PowerPoint presentation, showing the location of
the new road superimposed on photographs of the site. Additional details
were given to explain the perceived need for the road. A whole class discus-
sion took place, with notes being recorded on the whiteboard summariz-
ing the pros and cons of the development.
Groupwork – the class split into groups of four to six students to work
on the dilemma. The group members each had a specific role to carry
out in their group. They were given 20 minutes to discuss the dilemma

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 90 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

and come up with a decision they were comfortable with. To help them
come to a decision, the students were asked to consider the road devel-
opment from the point of view of a local resident overlooking the site, a
resident who did not overlook the site and a visitor to the area. The
range of possible solutions included the building of a two-lane road, a
single carriageway road or no road at all.
Sharing the outcomes – each group then shared with the rest of the
class their decision, in each case justifying it. The groups also com-
mented on how they worked as a group and the difficulty of coming to
a group decision.
Plenary – the lesson ended with the teacher leading a discussion which
drew together some of the main points of the activity, in particular the
range of possible solutions to the dilemma as outlined by the students.
The teacher also discussed the types of thinking that each group engaged
in when working on the dilemma, giving specific names to the thinking
type and adding practical examples from the students’ work. Finally, the
teacher asked students to reflect on how well they worked in their groups.
During this final part of the lesson, the activity closely resembled a meta-
cognitive reflection (see page 83).
Homework – for homework, students were asked to write a 300-word
report that summarized their group’s findings. The report included a dis-
cussion of the pros and cons of their solution to the dilemma.

An excellent resource book containing very detailed advice on

dilemma-based learning and its use in the classroom is Dilemma-
based Learning in the Humanities: Integrating Social, Emotional and
Thinking Skills by Phil Wood, Barry Hymer and Deborah Michel
(Cambridge: Chris Kington Publishing, 2007). It contains many
worked examples and makes extensive links to thinking skills,
philosophy for children and other aspects of learning. Task 3.13
challenges you to come up with some dilemmas of your own.

Task 3.13: Dilemma-based learning in your classroom

Study the text on dilemma-based learning. Use your creative thinking
skills to come up with the titles of five dilemma-based learning activ-
ities for a specific year group. What are the intended learning outcomes
of these dilemmas, and what resources will you need for each? Select
one and carry out the activity, review its success, then try another, this
time getting a colleague to observe your lessons and provide feedback
on strengths and weaknesses of the dilemma-based learning activity.

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 Practical classroom matters 91
Effective questioning techniques
One of the most important classroom techniques to master is the
use of effective questioning in order to extend students’ thinking
and create effective learning experiences. Questioning comes in
many forms and can be used to clarify students’ understanding,
prompt further thinking and help students to build new know-
ledge into existing frameworks. Bear in mind the following about
questioning:

Both open and closed questions have value, but students’ thinking is
best extended where open questions are used. Closed questions are
those that can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses.
It is important to vary the questions you ask your students, blending
open and closed questions and a range of different question prompts
(see box).
There are key links between questioning style and thinking skills in
that questions can lead learners through different levels of thinking in
Bloom’s taxonomy, including higher-order thinking.
Higher-order questioning is a way of helping your students to carry
out higher-order thinking (see box).
Get students to come up their own effective geographical questions as
well as posing them yourself. Encourage them to work together in
pairs and groups in order to ask each other insightful questions.
Give students plenty of ‘wait time’ before seeking a response – at least
20 seconds – this gives them time to come up with an appropriate
response rather than just saying the first thing that comes into their
heads.
Include some ‘no hands up’ periods during your questioning sessions –
instead, pick on students randomly in order to elicit a response. This
ensures that more reflective thinking is carried out, and all students
get an equal chance of being picked.
Self-questioning is a very valuable tool in solving geographical prob-
lems – help learners to devise suitable questions to ask themselves
(see box).
Students can ask and answer questions on sticky notes – providing an
alternative to conventional methods of questioning. Some students
may prefer the anonymity that accompanies this kind of approach to
questioning.

Fun and challenge can be injected into the classroom by staging

a question time event or a panel show where the audience asks
questions that are answered by the panel.

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 92 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Question prompts
The following question prompts can be used in your classroom:

What? Who? When? Why? – particularly effective when analysing a

photograph.
To what extent? – helps students to evaluate the degree to which
something occurs. It is an example of a higher-order question.
What would X think about this? – gets students thinking about a par-
ticular person’s view on a subject.
What if? – helps students to think about future scenarios and specu-
late on possible outcomes.
What can geographers do to help people understand this? – gets stu-
dents to think about the role of geographers in helping to make
sense of the world. This is another example of a higher-order
question.
Evaluate the success of . . . – challenges students to make judge-
ments about whether something meets its aims. Another example
of a higher-level question.

Self-questioning prompts
Here are just a few examples of self-questioning prompts which can
be used to help students to get out of a rut when stuck:

Why am I doing things this way?

What assumptions am I making?
Is this the best way to do this?
How can I change the way I’m thinking about this?
In what other ways could I do this?

Task 3.14: Investigating your questioning style

Study the above text on questioning. What kinds of questioning
techniques do you currently use in your classroom? How effective
are they at developing higher-order thinking? What new question-
ing strategies could you try out in future?

Cross-curricular links
Throughout this book I have tried to make links between geog-
raphy and other areas of the curriculum. Some schools have

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 Practical classroom matters 93
exploited these links by staging cross-curricular days or weeks
where students have studied one topic from the point of view
of a range of subject disciplines. Others have simply mapped
the links and encouraged students to see how their learning
dovetails with other areas of the curriculum. Whatever
approach you take, it is important to be aware of the many
links that exist between geography and other areas of the cur-
riculum and to make your students aware of these too. Other
points to bear in mind about cross-curricular links are as
follows:

Geography is perhaps unique in its ability to encompass a holistic view

of some of the challenges facing society today – there are few, if any,
school subjects that are not touched upon during the study of a geog-
raphy course.
They encourage your students to see geography as just one part of a
much wider web of knowledge that exists in the real world outside the
school gates.
In secondary schools, we tend to compartmentalize subjects far too
readily, with students not seeing the links between the different sub-
jects they study. It is not uncommon for a student to claim to be good
at one subject, but no good at another, that in reality has many simi-
larities in terms of what is required of the students.
Students can be helped to engage with the subject of geography if
they see its relevance to the other subjects they study, for example,
through the links between mathematics and the mechanics of
erosion, or English and the need for effective communication in
geography.
A sound understanding of subjects such as science can aid the devel-
opment of geographical knowledge and understanding, for example,
the structure of the atmosphere or the process of soil formation.
Making links to other aspects of the curriculum can provide some
exciting opportunities for fun and highly engaging geography lessons,
for example, the study of African tribal dances as a way of communi-
cating information about climatic conditions and how these affect
plant growth. Bringing these subjects into the geography classroom
can help to engage students who may not find geography an intrinsic-
ally interesting subject (yes, strangely enough there are students who
don’t like geography!).
Making links with other areas of the syllabus also encourages students
to develop transferable skills, something which should be a key target
for any teacher. Too often, students fail to be able to transfer what they
can do in one subject to another.

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 94 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Task 3.15: Your cross-curricular links

Think about the cross-curricular links you make in your teaching of a spe-
cific year group. Draw a mind map (see page 86) that illustrates these
cross-curricular links. Then assess the balance in terms of the subjects
you link to. Which subjects do you make most links to? Which subject has
few links? Add in a different colour ways in which you could make add-
itional links to subject areas which are not currently well covered. You
could repeat the exercise for another year group if you wish to expand
the cross-curricular links you are making.

Enriching the geography curriculum

There are many ways in which to enrich the geography curricu-
lum, and this section takes a look at some of the principal methods
that can be employed in your school. Enrichment is about addi-
tionality; adding something new to the subject of geography in a
way that makes it more interesting, engaging or worthy of study.
Consider the following when planning your enrichment
activities:

Enrichment is concerned with extending the geography curriculum,

taking things beyond the normal boundaries of the subject into new
and exciting realms.
Enrichment can take place within geography lessons and can also form
part of extra-curricular activities such as clubs.
Enrichment is designed to enhance the regular curriculum, adding
something fresh to what is normally taught in a way that complements
the standard curriculum.
Enrichment aims to help students gain a more rounded grasp of geog-
raphy as a subject, as well as gain valuable additional skills.
Well-organized enrichment can also have benefits in terms of passing
examinations, with the inclusion of much relevant syllabus content.
Enrichment can take advantage of subject areas outside geography in
order to bring a new dimension to the study of the subject.

Examples of geography enrichment activities include the

following:

Guest speakers.
An environment club, which carries out practical conservation activ-
ities on the school grounds and in the local community.

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 Practical classroom matters 95
An orienteering, hiking or fell-running club (all require map-reading
skills and get students outdoors where many landforms and other
physical features of the landscape can be seen).
A geography magazine team which produces a regular publication
with geography-related stories.
A geography web team which takes responsibility for a special student
section of the geography VLE content.
A University Challenge-style interform geography quiz with a special
prize for the winning team.
Visits to places of geographical interest outside of school.
The production of geographically themed artwork.
The delivery of an assembly to peers on a geographical subject.
The production of short stories for younger pupils which include some
geographical content (see also page 99).

Task 3.16: Enrichment explored

Study the text on enrichment. Draw up a list of the enrichment methods
you currently use in your classroom. What additional methods men-
tioned in the text do you think would be worthwhile? Identify three,
and prepare a plan for how they will be introduced into lessons. If there
are resource implications, check out the funding sources in Chapter 5.

Celebrating and promoting geography

The best geography departments actively promote the subject
and students successes within and beyond their schools. They
find every opportunity to fly the flag for geography and draw
people’s attention to its many positive features. There are plenty
of ways in which you can celebrate and promote geography,
including:

Writing articles or getting students to write articles about geography

in the school magazine/newsletter.
Having prominent display boards in public areas as well as in the
department.
Staging assemblies on a geographical theme.
Holding an annual ‘geography day’ where everybody is encouraged to
think about a burning geographical issue.
Issuing regular press releases to newspapers about work in the geog-
raphy department – there is nothing more powerful for parents than
seeing your department featured in the newspaper.

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 96 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Having a geography in the news noticeboard where topical articles are

posted to show the links between geographical studies and the real
world.
Submitting articles to professional journals about the work of your
department (e.g. Teaching Geography).
Applying for quality marks and awards for innovative work – this can
bring in much-needed funds too.

All these kinds of departmental ‘marketing’ will benefit from the

setting up of a student publicity team, made up of talented stu-
dents who help to fly the flag for the subject. In any department
which is well led, there are likely to be several especially keen
students who are happy to fulfil this role. There are many rewards
for the participating students, including seeing their work in
print, as well as the fact that their geography knowledge, under-
standing and skills are being developed. In order to be able to
explain geography to an outside audience, students first have to
understand it comprehensively themselves.
Some of the most effective publicity work stresses the links
between geography and the daily lives of all of us, illustrating the
many ways in which geography shapes our lives. Do not assume
that students and the wider community will recognize these
kinds of links; they sometimes need to be spelled out in order to
be understood.

Action research
Geography presents some wonderful opportunities for so-called
action research, namely, research carried out by teachers into
geography as a subject and what is effective in the classroom in
engaging young geographers’ minds. The way action research is
organized will be familiar to geography teachers as it mirrors the
enquiry-based approach to learning that is one of the principal
hallmarks of the subject.
Six steps to action research:

Identify a suitable research question to investigate – make this as specific

as possible.
Gather data – this can be in a range of formats including test results,
lesson observation, questionnaires and student interviews.
Present the data – using graphs, charts or other diagrams.
Analyse the data – this can be done simply or using statistical packages.
Draw conclusions – drawing together all the strands and summing up
the key findings.

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 Practical classroom matters 97
Evaluate the research – consider the strengths and weaknesses, and pre-
sent recommendations for how things could be improved next time.

There are very many action research titles that can be investi-
gated in your geography classroom. To give a flavour of what is
possible, here are five questions to consider – Task 3.17 asks you
to think about action research in your classroom:

What contribution do websites make to the study of geography at key

stage 3?
What makes geography a popular option subject at GCSE?
How can mapwork be improved through the use of ICT?
How can fieldwork at key stage 4 help students make geographical
sense of their local area?
How can student voice at key stage 5 be used to enhance the teaching
of geography?

Task 3.17: Action research in your classroom

Think about some of the burning issues or priorities for the next half-
term in terms of classroom practice. Come up with three possible
action research questions that will help you to make your lessons even
more effective. Discuss these with another member of your depart-
ment to identify the topic that is most suitable for your action research.
Carry out the action research, and present the results to other staff as
part of a staff meeting. The best schools routinely include such staff
professional development activities in their staff meetings. Make sure
your presentation includes recommendations for how, benefitting
from the action research, your lessons (and perhaps those of others)
can be improved.

In order to share the results of your research, you should con-

sider writing it up for one of the professional journals for geog-
raphers, such as the GA’s Teaching Geography. This will allow the
widest range of fellow geography teachers to benefit from the
research you have done, as well as being an excellent addition to
your personal portfolio for appraisal purposes.
Action research can also provide the springboard for some
more in-depth research, which may form part of a Master’s or
Doctoral study. There are also possibilities to team up with a uni-
versity to carry out a collaborative project. There are many excit-
ing avenues to pursue that will add a new dimension to your
teaching and the learning of your students. Some very significant

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 98 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

findings have come from teachers’ research carried out in their

own classrooms. Carrying out research will also make you a more
reflective teacher.

Innovative approaches
The teaching of geography can be enlivened through the use of a
range of innovative approaches which add an extra dimension to
the study of the subject, or cast fresh light on familiar classroom
challenges. A wide range of examples are discussed below to
show the kind of thing that is possible.

Guest speakers
The subject of geography can be brought to life by inviting guest
speakers to come to your school to speak about their experi-
ences of geography and how the subject affects their lives. Some
examples include:

Businesspeople – especially the links to economic geography and

industrial processes.
Farmers – especially the links to weather and climate and farming.
University lecturers – presenting details of their specialist fields of
interest.
Newspaper editors and journalists – discussing details of geography-re-
lated stories in the press.
Mountaineers/climbers – especially the links to landforms and map-
reading skills.
Scientists – if briefed properly, these people can help to demystify some
of the key issues in geography.
Local council staff – explaining some of the local issues affecting the
community.
Advocates of fair trade – explaining the background to the issues.
Representatives of charities – such as Oxfam, the Soil Association or
Friends of the Earth, explaining to students the nature of their work.

It is important to brief all guest speakers who visit your school to

maximize the benefits of their visits. They should be given details
of year groups/age ranges, encouraged to have a clear focus for
their talks and advised to keep their session as interactive as pos-
sible. The last thing you want is to have them talking at your
students for the whole lesson, with few chances for them to
engage with the speaker. Make sure you make the most of the
visit by getting a student to write it up for the school newsletter/

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 Practical classroom matters 99
magazine (ensuring a copy is sent to the speaker), and get another
to write a thank you letter on behalf of the class. It is vital to nur-
ture your guest speakers if they are to return. Continued positive
links with the local community rely on managing the relation-
ship in these ways.
Having guest speakers is an excellent way to enthuse students
who may not normally find the subject interesting, as the stu-
dents sometimes see a relevance of the subject that they had not
realized before. Bringing in people who are well known locally,
such as a high-profile mountaineer, adds great credentials to your
department and can inspire students. The benefits of having a
guest speaker who is ‘cool’ to students cannot be overstated and
can give your department a significant boost.

Good news for geography students

A geography department in a North Yorkshire school managed to
secure the sponsorship of The Independent in order to provide a
complimentary daily copy of the newspaper in order to help stu-
dents to gain an appreciation of current affairs linked to the sub-
ject of geography. Students scanned through and cut out copies
of geography-related stories which were kept in a special filing
area which was accessible to staff and students. These were used
by teachers to bring to life the teaching of certain topics, as well
as being scrutinized by students who were researching topics as
part of individual projects and coursework. A display board was
also installed with articles displayed which were relevant to the
topics currently being studied by the different year groups. The
provision of the newspaper was successful in improving students’
awareness of current affairs linked to the geography syllabus.
You too could benefit from such an arrangement by seeking the
support of a local, regional or national newspaper.

Creative writing
There are some excellent ways to use creative writing to enliven
the subject of geography. One example is the writing of short stor-
ies for younger children which convey geographical content. For
example, students in year 10 could prepare a story for year 6 pupils
called ‘Walter the water droplet’ which explains the water cycle
through the use of Walter’s journey from the ocean to the sky and
through rivers back to the ocean again. There are many other pos-
sibilities of such short stories, and handing over the choice of sub-
ject matter to the students can result in some very creative
outcomes. Poems with a geographical theme are also a great way

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 100 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

to use creative writing to brighten up the subject. For example,

students could write a poem expressing the views and emotions of
somebody whose home has been destroyed by a hurricane.

Debates and role plays

The subject of geography lends itself to some wonderful inter-
active teaching through debates and role plays. Such learning
approaches work especially well in geography because of the
many sides to some of the key issues which are studied in the
subject. Some examples of debates and role plays that in the
author’s experience have worked especially well include:

A decision on a major local development: for example, wind farm,

supermarket, bypass.
The development of the rainforest in a specific country, with different
groups representing various interested parties.
A public enquiry into whether a new housing estate should be built on
the outskirts of town.

By staging debates, you will be helping to improve students’

oracy skills (providing a link to the English department) as well
as their geographical knowledge and skills.

Geographical assemblies
Why not raise awareness of your subject by staging regular geo-
graphical assemblies? These can also provide an excellent focus
for student work, and students can take part in the presentation
of the assembly. Some ideal topics for geographical assemblies
include the following:

Local issues which require a decision or are controversial in some way

(e.g. a new supermarket or road-building scheme).
International issues of interest to young people (e.g. the destruction of
the rainforests, global warming and sea level rise).
Geographical issues that have direct relevance to the lives of young
people.
Topics which require the student audience to vote.
Topics which allow some interaction between the presenters and the
audience.

When presenting geographical assemblies, try to hand over the

ownership to students wherever possible to allow them to

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 Practical classroom matters 101
develop their presentational skills. Such assemblies are also excel-
lent ways to educate the audience on certain geographical issues,
with the added benefit of their peers taking the lead in doing the
educating.

Geography newsletter
You could issue a periodic geography newsletter to draw atten-
tion to important geographical issues which have local relevance.
Such a newsletter will also provide the opportunity for students
to write for a purpose on a geographical theme. Some ideal topics
for a newsletter could include:

River flooding
Unusual weather events
The occurrence of natural hazards
Progress on new building projects locally
Tourism visitor patterns to key attractions.

You can make the production of your geography newsletter quite

sophisticated by creating specific roles for the students on the
team. For example, editor, news editor, features editor, picture
editor etc. This has the added benefit of helping to develop jour-
nalistic skills (e.g. crafting articles, meeting deadlines etc.) and
creating a sense of responsibility among the production team.

Writing geography booklets

Students can gain much by being challenged to write mini geog-
raphy books on a range of topics, aimed at their peers or a younger
audience. The preparation of such booklets requires students to
assimilate information and present it in an easily understood for-
mat for another audience. Booklets can be illustrated with visual
material taken from the internet or prepared by the students.
One approach that has worked well has been for year 7 students
to prepare introductory booklets for children in year 6, which
introduce them to some of the major topics in geography. Geog-
raphy booklets are an ideal way of developing students’ skills in
writing for a specific audience, which has the added benefit of
having clear links to the English syllabus.

Lucky dip
Fun can be injected into the geography classroom by challenging
students, working in groups, to present the results of their work
on a geography topic in a range of ways. The names of various

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 102 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

presentation methods are written on pieces of card, which are

then placed in a box. A student represent from each group picks
a card from the box, and the students have two lessons to research
the topic and deliver the results using the required presentation
method. A variation on lucky dip is to give students a range of
suggestions and get them to pick their favourite presentation
method from the list. Suitable methods of presentation can be
very varied and can include:

PowerPoint presentation
Role play
Rap/song/poem
Poster
News/radio broadcast
Animation.

The conclusion of this work is to have each group present their

work to the rest of the class, during a ‘show and tell’ lesson. The
audience is required to make notes in the form of a mind map or
other graphic organizer, summarizing the key points of each
presentation.

Geography dictionary
Students can build their vocabulary by preparing their own geog-
raphy dictionary during the course of their GCSE or A-level stud-
ies. Every student should be issued with a small (A5 or A6) size
notebook at the start of the school year, and every time a new
geography keyword is encountered, this should be recorded with
its definition, A–Z style. Such notebooks can become invaluable
during revision for end-of-unit tests and examinations. The note-
books can be made more visually appealing by the student add-
ing an illustration beneath each keyword.

Geography blockbusters
You can have a great deal of fun while also developing students’
geographical knowledge by playing Geography Blockbusters.
This is best done through a data projector by projecting a pre-
prepared Blockbuster grid onto the wall. Students then work
their way across the grid by correctly identifying the geographical
word which is signified by each letter. The letters change to a
solid hexagon when the correct answer is found. Blockbusters is
an ideal game to play as a plenary to recap some of the geograph-
ical words covered during the lesson, or at the end of unit of

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 Practical classroom matters 103
study to summarize the key content. You can download some
free software for creating blockbuster grids at www.promethean-
planet.com.

End-of-topic quiz
When you reach the end of a topic, you can breathe fresh life
into the familiar end-of-unit test by instead staging a quiz in
which the class is split into two groups, and the students set the
questions for each other. Desks can be arranged opposite each
other to bring a sense of occasion to the quiz, and you as teacher
can act as quiz master, posing the questions to each side in turn
and filtering out any especially difficult or otherwise inappropri-
ate questions. Questions of various types can be set, including:

True or false – for example, the centre of a town is called the Central
Business District, true or false?
Spot the odd one out – for example, spot the odd city out from the fol-
lowing list: London, Paris, New York, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro (answer:
Rio de Janeiro because it’s in an economically developing country).
Define this word – for example, define the word corrosion.
Bigger or smaller, higher or lower – for example, which river is longer:
the Nile or the Amazon?

Any questions?
The teacher sits in the centre of the room with the students all
around. The teacher thinks of a geographical word and to deter-
mine what the word is, the students ask relevant questions which
only require a yes or no answer. The class could be split up into
teams to bring a competitive edge to this exercise. A variation on
this theme (suitable for teachers who are not stage shy) is for the
teacher to come dressed as a famous figure in geography (an
explorer or well-known scientist, for example). Again, questions
with a yes or no answer are asked, this time to determine the
identity of the teacher.

Kinaesthetic learning in action

Much has been written about the importance of providing learn-
ing opportunities which respect students’ learning preferences
(see page 31 for general guidance on this topic). Kinaesthetic
learning opportunities allow students to get physically involved
in their learning, using their bodies to engage with the subject
matter.

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 104 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

An example of an innovative way to do this in lessons comes

from the study of food webs, which forms an important part of
any discussion of the management of any habitats such as trop-
ical rainforests. It requires a certain amount of ‘buy in’ by stu-
dents, but has been shown to work effectively with students of
all ages.
The task involves students physically acting out how organ-
isms are arranged in a forest food web. This requires the use of
a large amount of floor space, so the tables and chairs should all
be cleared to the edge of the room for this exercise (this can be
done by the students in the class prior to the food web lesson to
save time). Begin by asking a group of students to act out the
role of the primary producers (trees and plants). To do this, they
sit on the floor in a line and pretend to be living trees or plants,
perhaps swaying in the wind. Next, a small group of students
(smaller than the primary producers) acts out the role of pri-
mary consumers; these are the organisms that eat the primary
producers. Each student should act out the role of a specific
primary consumer, which will be different according to the food
web being studied. The students can pretend to be eating the
primary producers, mimicking the true feeding relationships in
the food web. Inevitably this part of the lesson generates
humour as the trees and plants are ‘eaten’ by such things as
caterpillars, bugs and slugs. Next, a smaller group of students
acts out the role of secondary consumers, with such things as
birds and mammals ‘eating’ the primary consumers. The final
stage involves the introduction of a tertiary consumer, a top
predator such as a big cat or eagle that ‘eats’ the secondary con-
sumers. To complete the exercise, all the living things are asked
to join hands with an organism which eats them, making a liv-
ing representation of the food web. This exercise, as well as
being fun, has been shown to be highly memorable and easily
recalled when knowledge of food webs is required in
examinations.
The food web example is just one way in which kinaesthetic
learning can be used in the classroom. Other examples are as
follows:

The creation of living bar charts as students display information about

a topic by creating a graphic representation using their own bodies.
The use of hand gestures to simulate the three types of plate margins
as follows: constructive – wrists together, palms facing away from each
other; conservative – flat hands rubbing against each other in opposite

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 Practical classroom matters 105
directions; destructive – the fingers of one hand going beneath the
knuckles of the other.
A puppet show – students can make finger puppets and act out a sce-
nario to demonstrate geographical knowledge, for example, the effects
of earthquakes. This provides a creative outlet for those of your stu-
dents which enjoy performance.
Learning through dance – adventurous teachers can explore how
dance can add value to geography lessons in a number of ways. For
example, samba dancing can be practised when studies of the Brazil-
ian rainforest are made, or a Masai (Kenyan) jumping dance can be
used when studies of African rural communities are carried out.

These methods are very useful in engaging students who may

not instinctively find the study of geography very interesting, as
they allow students to express themselves in unconventional
ways in the geography classroom. I have seen the dramatic effects
they can have on students with a creative streak, whose creativ-
ity is released by these methods, and whose opinion of geog-
raphy as a subject has changed as a result of the kinaesthetic
learning methods.
Methods of kinaesthetic learning can present ideal opportun-
ities for cross-curricular working, for example, with the art, music
or dance departments. Such cross-curricular working is rare but
is an excellent way of combining the skills of different subject
teachers, as well as helping students to see beyond the imposed
boundaries of the secondary school curriculum.
Kinaesthetic learning represents, of course, just one way of
appealing to the learning preferences of students. For more class-
room guidance about how you can cater for different learning
preferences, see page 32.

Keeping it current
Geography is a living, breathing subject, and it is important to
take every opportunity to remind students of the topicality of the
subject. One way this can be done is to ask students, in turn, to
bring in an interesting news clipping on a current geographical
issue that has local, national or international interest: for example,
flood, famine, new development etc. Prepare a wall display by
theme, and get students to stick their news clipping on the rele-
vant theme, and then spend a few minutes explaining the main
points of the news clipping to the rest of the class, as well as out-
lining their own views on it. This helps to keep geography fresh
and relevant to the lives of the students. It will also help students

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 106 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

to think of geography as a subject that is highly relevant today,

and which they need to have an opinion on.

Using unusual stimuli

Geography is a subject that lends itself to the use of unusual stim-
uli for lessons. One approach that I took with my A-level group
was to look at household items and think about how I could turn
them into innovative lesson ideas. One of the best activities I came
up with began when I opened a packet of bagels. The packet for
the brand of bagels I had bought had the phrase ‘the authentic
New York taste’ written on its side. As we were studying urban
geography at the time, I hit upon the idea of using this as a stimu-
lus to investigate the pros and cons of living in New York in order
to discover what the ‘authentic New York taste’ might be like. I
took the bagels into school and explained my thinking to my stu-
dents. The task set was for the students to research quality of life
in New York in order to investigate the advantages and disadvan-
tages of living in the city. They were given two lessons to carry out
the research, at the end of which they had to come to some con-
clusions as to what the authentic New York taste was like, and
whether on the whole the city was a good or bad place in which to
live. The students were given a range of stimulus materials, includ-
ing articles from National Geographic and newspapers, and were
also given access to the internet. They were also given recording
sheets on which to systematically record their ideas. The conclu-
sion they came up with was that it depended who you were: New
York could be both a good and a bad place in which to live, depend-
ing on your socio-economic status. In this way, the authentic New
York taste was seen to vary from person to person. The lesson was
completed by the students eating the bagels to discover what the
authentic New York bagel taste was like! This learning activity
demonstrates that innovation can be found in many forms, and
even the most unlikely stimulus can sometimes be turned into les-
son ideas. The message here is that when looking for inspiration
for your lessons, do not overlook the many potential stimuli that
surround you in the form of everyday objects.

Letting students take the lead at student review meetings

You can bring a whole new dimension to key stage 4 and 5 student
review meetings by handing over more responsibility to students
in a way that is sure to impress parents. This can be done by asking
the students to comment on their strengths, weaknesses and marks
over the course of the term. The lesson before the review meeting

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 Practical classroom matters 107
can be used to prepare for it by looking over their student record
card (see page 56) and noting down key points to be made in the
review meeting, with the help of a crib sheet (see below). Any
students struggling to do this can be helped via a one-to-one ses-
sion with the teacher. Each student also records the things they
need to do to improve their performance in geography, what the
teacher can specifically help them with and an indication of their
target grade. During the review evening, the student comments on
their performance as described above, followed by additional com-
ments by the teacher, perhaps also illustrated with examples of
students’ work. Parents are then invited to ask questions or make
comments of their own. Some students may also wish to identify
things that their parents can do to help them to achieve their tar-
get grade in geography. This helps to emphasize the sense of part-
nership between student, teacher and parents.
My own experience of running student review evenings of this
nature is that they prove much more engaging for students, and
that given the responsibility, they are more than capable, with the
help of their record card, of identifying their strengths and weak-
nesses in the subject, and what they need to do to reach their tar-
get grade. Furthermore, there is often a striking similarity between
the areas for improvement identified by the student and those
identified by the teacher. The challenge for the teacher is to note
carefully what they need to do to help each student to reach their
target grade, and then to try their utmost to do these things.
The act of handing over responsibility to students in this way
is very empowering for young people, and its value in motivating
them should not be underestimated. It provides a wonderful
opportunity to show students that they are responsible for their
own learning and can identify things they need to do to improve
their performance.

Student review evening crib sheet

What marks have you gained for the recent geography
assignments?
What have you enjoyed over the last term?
What are your strengths and weaknesses in geography?
What do you plan to work on to improve your performance in this
subject?
How can your teacher help you to achieve this?
What is your target grade in geography?

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 108 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Funding your innovative geography work

If you are wondering how you might find the funds to carry out
innovative ideas that have resource implications, the good news
is that there are many sources of external funding which can be
used to add a creative element to your geography work. Few
geography teachers realize that there are actually hundreds of
millions of pounds in external funds available each year to sup-
port innovative teaching in schools. Many of the funding sources
lend themselves especially well to geography teaching and geog-
raphy-related extra-curricular activities.
The following examples show how geography teachers have
used external funds to enrich their lessons. Additionally, several
of the case studies were funded using such external funding
sources, and a list of further funding sources are given in Sec-
tion 6. Note the appearance of several entries for Settle High
School reflects the author’s time as head of geography at the
school.

Settle millennium map

A head of geography was successful in gaining £600 for his rural com-
prehensive school in order to produce a map of the town at the turn of
the millennium. Funding came from the Frederick Soddy Trust (see
page 161). The map was researched and produced by students in year
9 as part of their geography lessons. The work was linked to an extended
period of fieldwork in the local community which investigated visitor
patterns, shopping activities and the sphere of influence of the town.
The project successfully raised the profile of the subject among stu-
dents, leading to greater enthusiasm for it in year 10. One student com-
mented, after completing the work: ‘I’ve learnt more about Settle in the
last year than I have in the rest of my life!’ This activity could easily be
replicated for all or part of your local settlement.

Settle environment fair

A grant of £10,000 was secured from the charity Human Scale Education
(see page 161) to stage a large-scale event which brought over 1,000
primary school children to their local secondary school for a day of

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 Practical classroom matters 109
environment-themed activities. The activities were led by the students
at the secondary school and their teachers. The event also provided the
chance for the primary school children to present the results of their
own environmental projects, which had been carried out in the weeks
prior to the environment fair. The event was a huge success, bringing
learning alive for the primary school children and helping the second-
ary school students to develop their geographical knowledge and lead-
ership skills. Some secondary school students who had not traditionally
been very engaged with their learning gained much from this event,
rising ably to the challenge of working with the primary school children.
The event brought great credit to the secondary school and raised the
profile of geography for the primary school pupils and their parents.

Yorkshire dales award

Settle High School geography department won a prize of £350 for its
work to promote students’ knowledge of the Yorkshire Dales National
Park. The prize was awarded in recognition of the various ways in which
the department had used the park as a tool for learning. This included
the inclusion of a special coursework unit on tourism effects in the
Dales. This award shows that making innovative changes to the curricu-
lum can reap impressive financial rewards. Note also that no extra work
as such was required to be eligible for this award; instead a change of
emphasis was needed in the teaching schemes that underpinned the
lessons. You can check out any similar schemes being organized in the
national parks nearest to your school by contacting their education
officers. More details of all the United Kingdom’s national parks can be
found at www.nationalparks.gov.uk.

A-level coursework prizes

The Settle High School geography department gained two prizes sim-
ply by entering its A-level students’ work into competitions. The first,
worth £350, was awarded in the form of the Chartered Institute of
Logistics and Transport School Travel Prize (for details of this organiza-
tion, see www.ciltuk.org.uk), for a student’s study of traffic patterns and
the need for a bypass in her home village. The second, much more sub-
stantial, prize of £2,000 came from the Willmot Pertwee School Compe-

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 110 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

tition for a study of river quality along the river Ribble. These examples
show that funds can sometimes be gained just by entering course-
work, without any need to carry out additional work. There are parallel
schemes to the ones mentioned here aimed at GCSE and key stage 3
students, so it always pays to read carefully any fliers than arrive in your
in-tray with details of such competitions. The Times Educational Supple-
ment also lists details of many award schemes for schools and should
be scanned on a regular basis.

Junk sculpture
Oldfield School in Bath won £500 from the School Innovation Awards
(now ceased, but Awards for All cover similar ground, see page 157) to
build their own environmental sculpture on the school grounds. Work-
ing with a community artist, students from the school researched the
problem of waste in their local area and then selected various materials
to use in a large-scale sculpture to stand on the school grounds. The
project was a collaboration between the geography art departments
at the school and produced some superb outcomes, not least a perman-
ent new sculpture for the school. By allowing the students to work
across two subject disciplines, they were able to see the links between
different areas of the syllabus.

Grounds for learning

Several secondary schools across the country have benefited from the
advice and funding secured by the charity Learning through Land-
scapes (see page 162) to transform their grounds into multisensory
learning environments. Although it is necessary to join this charity to
gain their initial support, the expert advice available through their
newsletters and consultants more than makes up for the initial financial
outlay (£60 for secondary schools). Schools working in partnership with
Learning through Landscapes have secured grants of up to £10,000
from a range of funders in order to make the most out of their grounds
as a resource for learning. This has included developments of interest to
geography teachers as well as other subject areas as follows:

The erection of a weather recording station to stimulate

interest in this aspect of the geography curriculum.

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 Practical classroom matters 111
The building of nature trails to encourage the identification
of tree, plant and bird species on the school grounds.
The building of ponds to study food webs and chains.
The building of an outdoor amphitheatre-style classroom for
open air demonstrations.

Schools that have worked with Learning through Landscapes have

seen a step change in the way their grounds are used as a learning
resource, which is bringing profound benefits to the students at
these schools.

Africa day
A school in the midlands secured £5,000 from Awards for All to stage
a spectacular Africa day, which drew attention to the challenges
facing this continent today. The day began with a Ghanian dancing
demonstration during assembly and quickly led into a series of les-
sons highlighting the contemporary challenges faced by Africa. These
included feeding its people, protecting the environment and sustain-
able economic development. Throughout the day, students were
challenged to make pledges for how they might be able to help the
people of Africa; these were brought together at the end of the day
on a gigantic ‘pledge wall’ which was filled with post-it notes detail-
ing the actions the students would be carrying out. A feature of the
day was the collaboration of a number of other subject teachers to
bring the event to life, such as the music and drama teachers who
helped with the Ghanian dance demonstration.

Linking communities across the globe

An internationally important project was organized by a geography
teacher from Royston High School in Barnsley, which sought to link
young people in England with counterparts in southern Africa. The
work benefited from over £50,000 which was raised from a wide var-
iety of sources, including local charitable trusts, local companies and
fundraising events such as bag packing in a major supermarket. The
work began by transforming a neglected courtyard into an inspir-
ational micro-river system, complete with its own mini wind turbine.
This led to a link with the land-locked African country of Lesotho, with

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 112 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

which the teacher had an existing contact. A major fundraising drive

was initiated to take a group of students to Lesotho to meet their coun-
terparts and – most inspirationally of all – to build a wind turbine that
would bring electricity to the village for the first time. This is an example
of a project that has genuinely changed lives and has been used to
enrich the curriculum at the school on many occasions. In order to
access funds for this kind of project, the first port of call is the Directory
of Grant-making Trusts, published by the Charities Aid Foundation and
held by most large libraries.

Task 3.18: Innovative approaches in your classroom

The innovative approaches discussed above are intended to inspire you
to try out some new strategies in your classroom. Draw up a short list of
your top five favourite new strategies from all those set out above. Then
plan how you will introduce each into your lessons. You can get into the
spirit of creative lesson planning by brainstorming with some depart-
mental colleagues to come up with some new strategies of your own
for a specific unit of work. Give yourselves a break from the normal rou-
tine by holding your brainstorming session in a different venue (e.g. a
hotel, somebody’s house) to help lubricate the creative juices. As you
brainstorm, keep in mind the main aim: to inspire students through
innovative teaching and learning approaches. The work you do while
brainstorming corresponds to step 2 of the Creativity Cycle (‘Idea gen-
eration’, see page 19); to move on to the third step – idea selection – you
will need to choose which strategies you are going to actually use in the
unit of work. The remainder of the eight steps to creativity will be
required to implement and monitor the success of the strategies
chosen.

Collaboration with other schools

It is important not to overlook the benefits of collaborating with
other schools in your locality, or even further afield, in order to
enrich geographical learning. A variety of approaches can be
taken to make such collaboration successful:

Students can take part in joint fieldwork investigating a local issue.

Students can get involved in a competitive debate on a geographical
theme.

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 Practical classroom matters 113
Students can prepare presentations on geographical topics to give to
students from the partner school.
Teachers can work collaboratively to tackle a common challenge in
their schools, for example, by motivating disaffected learners.
Joint examination revision sessions can be staged in the lead-up to
exams, with teachers from both schools using a range of innovative
methods to help prepare students for them.

There is even funding to support the collaboration between

schools in the form of the independent-state school partnerships
scheme – see www.suttontrust.com for more information.

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 Case studies
4
Sophie Craven

Overview
This chapter contains a range of up-to-date and relevant
case studies of inspirational geography teaching from
schools across the United Kingdom. Each represents a
comprehensive profile of innovative and outstanding
practice that can be replicated in your own classroom. The
aim of this chapter is to show what is possible in geog-
raphy lessons with imagination, creativity and hard work.

115

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 116 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

The use of ICT in teaching

geography
Aylesbury High School, Buckinghamshire
The Royal Geographiical Society (RGS) offers five Innovative
Geography Teaching Grants each year. The grants awarded are
up to £800 each and fund innovative geography teaching for all
geography teachers working in secondary schools. The grants
enable geography teachers to develop imaginative, innovative or
creative teaching materials and teaching methods. The aim is to
serve both geography pupils and the wider teaching community.
Among the 2009 recipients was Aylesbury High School, who
developed the innovative use of video diaries.

Background
Aylesbury High School is a selective girls’ grammar school that
prides itself as being a ‘busy, ambitious and forward-looking
community’. Within this successful environment, the geography
department’s vision is to constantly innovate and achieve excel-
lence. The department’s achievements are marked by the high
take-up of geography at key stage 4 and beyond and also by their
high achievement in terms of exam results – which in 2009 were
well above the school average.

Awards
The department’s success has also been marked by a number of
awards, including:

Secondary Geography Quality Mark status awarded by the Geo-

graphical Association in 2007.
Two-time winner of the Innovative Geography Teaching Grant
(RGS) – in 2007 for an archaeological project run in conjunction with
the history department, and again in 2009 for the video diaries.
Becky Kitchen, head of department, was awarded Chartered Geogra-
pher (Teacher) status by the Royal Geographical Society in 2007.
Becky Kitchen was awarded the RGS Ordnance Survey Award for
Excellent Teaching in Secondary Geography, 2009.

Geography video diaries

Video diaries were initially used in the department as a
means for students to record geography field trips, lessons and

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 Case studies 117
extra-curricular activities, but as the project grew, diaries were
also used to promote geography throughout the school: as dis-
cussion tools after field trips, as evidence of good practice for both
staff and students’ portfolios and as methods of data presentation
in enquiry and coursework. Video diaries were made by students
of all abilities and in every year, as well as by teachers. In add-
ition to providing a detailed digital record of geography at the
school, the diaries also provided an insight into both students’
and teachers’ personal geographies.
The videos were used in geography throughout the key stages
and for a variety of different topics. The activities were also trans-
ferable to other subjects. Some specific examples of video diary
activities can be seen in Figure 4.1.

Enhancing the teaching and learning process

The use of video has enhanced geography for the students in a
number of key ways. Importantly, it provides a different and fun
way of interacting with people and landscapes, which promotes
enjoyment in the subject. It is also invaluable for learning
and teaching as it promotes Assessment for Learning (AFL; see
also page 53). Students are able to very visually review their

Idea Uses Description

Moderating Year 8 UN population Geography is a subject which
presentations simulation debate. lends itself to presentation,
debate and role play, however,
it is very difficult to evidence
and moderate this work.
Presentations can be videoed
and then used for moderation
and peer or self assessment.
‘How to . . . ’ Year 8 gifted and There are various skills required
videos talented (G&T) pupils for geography which, once
creating a ‘How to draw taught (usually at the start
a fieldsketch’ video. of Year 7) it is assumed that
Year 12 pupils creating pupils will be able to apply.
‘How to investigate river To reinforce the importance
cross-sections’ video. of skills and to create a
library of pupil-explained
techniques, various groups of
students have created ‘How
to . . . ’ videos where they
film themselves explaining a
geographical skill in a step by
step way.

Figure 4.1 Continued

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 118 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Idea Uses Description

Learning rambles Year 8 G&T pupils Having successfully used photos
asking questions about as a stimulus for pupils to
their environment. ask geographical questions, I
created the idea of a learning
ramble which does a similar
thing, but using video. Pupils
walk around an environment
and, as they do so, ask their
own questions about it. Once
back in the classroom one or
more of their questions could
be investigated. This worked
particularly well with G&T pupils
who put their own spin on the
idea and videoed the same
learning ramble but from two
different perspectives – one
videoed the ramble normally
and the other videoed it with the
camera pointing at the ground.
Personal Year 9 interviews about As an introduction to a unit on
geographies their image and South Africa, pupils were
experience of South asked to interview each other,
Africa. addressing the following
questions: What do you know
about South Africa already?
Do you have a positive or
negative image of the country?
Why do you think this is? Why
should we study South Africa
in Geography? At the end of
the unit these questions were
revisited to see how much their
thinking had moved on.
Creating living Year 9 climate graphs. With a video camera, a couple of
graphs metre rulers and a measuring
tape, pupils can create living
graphs. The idea is that they
are given some data and have
to create the graph using the
metre rulers as the axis and
themselves as the points.
These are then joined together
with the measuring tape. The
graph can be videoed from
above and then some of the
‘points’ on the graph can be
interviewed to describe and
explain the trend.

Figure 4.1 Continued

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 Case studies 119
Idea Uses Description
Revision aids Year 11, 12 and 13 The exam classes chose elements
creating revision aids of the syllabus that they
by using video and Hot wanted to revise, and videoed
Potatoes software. themselves talking about these
topics for a minute or two. Hot
potatoes software was then
used to create gap fill exercises
and quizzes based on the
embedded video. These were
then shared with the rest of the
class and used for revision.
Creating video Year 12 residential Pupils were given a video camera
diaries of fieldtrip to North Devon. and instructed to create video
fieldtrips diaries of the fieldtrip. Some of
their diaries were factual, some
humorous and some decidedly
obscure! These have now been
edited together to create a
promotional video to encourage
the Year 11 pupils to take
geography in the Sixth Form.
Virtual fieldtrips Year 12 virtual fieldtrips Pupils visited a range of different
of Aylesbury – sites in Aylesbury and produced
embedding video into a series of short videos with
Google Earth. voiceovers describing what
they could see. Back in the
classroom this was embedded
into Google Earth placemarks
with statistical data from the
census to create a virtual
fieldtrip which investigated types
of housing, ethnic groups and
other socio-economic factors.

Figure 4.1 Various lesson ideas

performance or their results, and are able to explain why they

achieved the results they got and then look at how they could
improve. Student self-assessment and understanding how to
improve is a key part of what the National Strategy on AFL terms
‘day-to-day assessment’. The video diaries also link well into the
key concept of place by encouraging students to analyse their
own views of places and to see how they compare with others.
The scope of the project is large in that it spans all year groups
and abilities and allows both staff and students to evaluate how
they ‘do’ geography.

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 120 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Impact Measure

Students gain an awareness of Assessed by discussion with students

‘their personal geographies’ and
can describe and explain why
these may be different
Students have a deeper Levels of achievement from 2009 (with
understanding of landscapes video diaries) will be compared with
and issues investigated during levels of achievement in 2008
fieldtrips and lessons (without video diaries).
Teachers are more consistent in Assessed by a portfolio of videos
their assessment of activities showing comparable levels of
involving role-play/debate achievement from different students.

Figure 4.2 Impact on learning

Measuring and assessing the impact on learning

The video diary project has been embedded within a range of dif-
ferent schemes of work within the department, and the concept
is also transferable across other subjects and other curriculum
areas. The concepts are being disseminated to school staff through
a ‘learning lunch’ so that other departments can use some of the
ideas and resources. Figure 4.2 gives examples of impact on
learning and how to measure it.

Lessons for others on innovation and creativity:

The head of department speaks
‘Our work is innovative and creative as we have different ways
of approaching concepts, particularly those that might appear
quite “dry” or difficult for students to grasp. We try out different
techniques which others may not have done before, or done in a
different context, and hone them so that they work to enhance
students’ geographical understanding. Good examples of this
approach are the ‘living graph’ and learning rambles.
We have tried to link with other subjects while keeping the
geography strong, for example, we describe the monsoon in India
through art and poetry and students have to respond to this by
creating their own artefact, image or poem which captures key
features of the monsoon.
The other way in which we have taught is through the medium
of cake! It’s amazing how many geographical concepts can be
taught in this way, from shanty towns to urban models and glaci-
ated valleys to cross-sections of volcanoes. If the teacher insists

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 Case studies 121
that the cake is annotated fully with flags mounted on cocktail
sticks then the learning can be really powerful.
We always try to use real life and sometimes complicated
examples so that students understand that geography is relevant
to their lives and that they can argue and discuss key geograph-
ical issues with adults. For example, Year 8 students carry out a
UN conference where they are delegates from a country and
have to research and present population issues from their coun-
try and possible solutions. They also have to write a press release
after the conference’.

Practical steps and measures to becoming

more creative and innovative
The key is to not be creative or innovative for the sake of it but to
think about the learning which is taking place and to ensure that
the geography is kept strong and integral. If the best way to teach
about graphs for your students is for them to draw it, then this is
what you should do. However, there are several practical steps
which you could follow to become more innovative:

Take other people’s ideas and adapt them to suit your own pur-
pose. There are lots of excellent places where you can share ideas or
take inspiration: for example, the Geography Teaching Today web-
site (www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk) has a variety of differ-
ent resources, and the Geographical Association conference is a
fantastic place to share resources and to meet other like-minded
geographers.
Involve your students. When you are planning your scheme of work
or deciding what to do for a lesson, ask the students to help you.
They have the experience of a wide variety of lessons and know what
works and what doesn’t, and they may have creative ideas of their
own. Taking this a stage further, you could give groups of students
10 minutes of the lesson to teach the rest of the class about a certain
concept.
Don’t be afraid to try new things out. It may not work the first time
or with that particular topic or concept, but if you don’t try out your
ideas, you will never know. At Aylesbury High School, the students
enjoy taking risks, and if something doesn’t work the first time, we try
something else.
Don’t work in a bubble. The best way to get ideas is to share with
other people. In most schools, money for CPD is tight, but bouncing
ideas around your department is always useful. Having a PGCE stu-
dent is also very valuable as they bring lots of ideas with them and

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 122 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

should be encouraged to try out different techniques in their teach-

ing. If you can, then network with other geography teachers in your
area, share resources by email or meeting up periodically.
Apply for an innovative teaching grant. If you have an idea, apply
to the RGS for funding. Aylesbury High School was given an innova-
tive teaching grant for a specific purpose (video diaries), but once
the department had the equipment, teachers came up with lots of
other ideas which weren’t directly linked to the original project.

Further information
Innovative Geography Teaching Grants www.rgs.org
Aylesbury High School website www.ahsonline.co.uk

CROSS-CURRICULAR LINKS
The Belvedere Academy, Liverpool
The Belvedere Academy, a mixed ability 11–19 girls’ school in
Liverpool, was opened in September 2007, and was the first
independent school to become a non–fee-paying, non-selective,
mixed-ability academy in the United Kingdom. Within the
school, the geography department enjoys a good reputation. The
department is well respected for the consistently high attainment
of students, for promoting cross-curricular links and for leading
the modern foreign languages specialism through joint curricu-
lum work with a partner school in China.

The department’s vision for geography

Our vision is to develop an interest in the world in each and every one
of the girls that we teach. Through developing enquiring minds, we
hope to create pupils with a great understanding of the positive contri-
bution they can make to society, not only in Liverpool, but in the United
Kingdom and beyond. All members of the geography department aim
to develop positive and productive working relationships, based on
mutual respect. All students are valued as individuals, while being
challenged academically and working towards their personal best.

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 Case studies 123
The Fair Trade Fashion Show
Belvedere Academy was awarded an £800 Royal Geographical
Society Innovative Geography Teaching Grant to organize a Fair
Trade Fashion Show. The fashion show, staged in June 2008, was
organized and run by year 9 geography students, in conjunction
with the textiles department as part of a module of work on
geographical issues. The whole event, including clothes worn,
music, lighting, refreshments and ticket sales was organized by
students.
Inspired by their learning in geography, students were given
the opportunity to present some of their own fashion garments
through a cross-curricular working relationship with the textiles
department. This enabled students to adapt clothes or create
clothes or accessories of their own. A textiles enrichment session
was run after school so that all students could attend, if they
wished, to complete their work. The clothes that the models wore
were either influenced by fair trade and designed by the students
themselves, or donated by local companies and organizations
including Marks & Spencer – Gemini, Liverpool University and
Shared Earth.
Nichol Waring from Marks & Spencer, who regularly arranges
fashion shows on the company’s behalf, visited the school in May
during an after-school enrichment session. During the session,
Nichol measured models, matched colours and styles and talked
to students about their roles within the fashion show. Such was
the excitement around the event, even at this early stage, that
other students came along to watch the fitting.
Marks & Spencer kindly donated a fair trade food and drink
hamper that could be raffled at the fashion show. They also
donated ‘bags for life’, money-off vouchers and samples of fair
trade tea, coffee and chocolate for the audience.
Teaching and Learning was enhanced and brought to life by
another external visitor – Sophie Shepherd, the manager of
Shared Earth, Liverpool. Sophie visited the school the week
before the fair trade fashion show, during an after-school geog-
raphy enrichment session, to talk about her experiences of trav-
elling to India with her employers. She was able to talk to the
students about working conditions with and without fair trade,
show images of her trip and pass around fair trade products and
accessories. By having someone who had seen conditions in
Indian factories first hand, the students were really able to get a
feel for the different economic and social conditions. The unique,

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 124 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

high-quality talk that Sophie gave opened up the issues of fair

trade and fashion beyond the year 9 curriculum to an audience
of over 40, from a mixture of all year groups.
The Innovative Geography Teaching Grant provided the school
with an ideal opportunity to update existing schemes of work to
include the study of fair trade, and also allowed them to purchase
some more up-to-date resources for the fashion topic that already
formed part of the geographical issues module.
The fair trade fashion show was a huge success. Students were
really engaged by the real-life stories that they were presented
with. Having external speakers and visitors helped to emphasize
the importance of what they were learning about and that fair
trade has real relevance to geography in a real-life context.
For further details of the RGS Grant scheme, see the Aylesbury
High School ‘Video Diaries’ case study on page 116 and the fund-
ing ideas section on page 156.

Project outcomes

One year 9 student has been requested to contact Marks & Spencer –
Gemini regarding modelling in the future.
Increased confidence of students in their organizational and presen-
tational skills as well as increased personal confidence.
Maintenance of high numbers of students choosing geography as a
GCSE option despite increased subject choice.
The establishment of a good working relationship between The
Belvedere Academy and local fair trade suppliers.
Geography and textiles after-school enrichment clubs have helped
to increase the profile of both subjects in the Academy.
Increased publicity of geography at the Academy around the com-
munity through the coverage of the fashion show on the Academy
website www.belvedereacademy.net.
Coverage of the fashion show on the Staffordshire Learning
Network.

Future developments
Rather than repeat the project too frequently and risk losing
impact on the students, the department will, in the future, run
the fair trade fashion show once every three years. This way it
will run once while each student is in key stage 3. The depart-
ment also intends to involve key stage 4 students in the choreog-
raphy for the event, which could lead to a cross-curricular link
with GCSE PE. At key stage 5, the involvement of A-level media

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 Case studies 125
studies for filming the event and A-level business studies for pro-
motion, ticket sales and organizing local business links, would all
be a further potential outcome for the project.

What made the project innovative and creative?

A real-life and tangible dimension

The use of external speakers to bring the project to life
Student autonomy and responsibility to organize a ‘live’ event
Cross-curricular and extra-curricular themes and links

In the words of Gavin Sterry, subject leader for geography: ‘Bring-

ing in outside speakers and physical products that could be han-
dled and passed around the classroom is not something that we
often do – mainly due to time constraints and a very full curricu-
lum. However, this innovative approach was hugely helpful for
students in really grasping the issues. In addition, by demonstrat-
ing how effective this approach has been, other subject areas
have been prompted into bringing in external speakers and even
to developing video conferencing’.

Further information
Innovative Geography Teaching Grants www.rgs.org
School website www.belvedereacademy.net

Collaborative, whole-school
enrichment
Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Hove, Sussex
Cardinal Newman Catholic School is a large co-educational
11–18 comprehensive school in Hove, Sussex. The school became
a Humanities Specialist College in 2005, received an ‘outstand-
ing’ Ofsted report in November 2007, and was designated a Train-
ing and Development Agency for Schools Training School in
September 2009.
The geography department has a reputation of excellence and
strives to be ‘the best’ – contributing to the high-quality learning
and teaching within the humanities specialism. At all levels,
examination pass rates in geography are above the school and
national averages.

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 126 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

The department’s vision for geography

The department’s vision is to ensure that the geography curriculum is
lively, fun, relevant, engaging, stimulating and challenging, and to
make sure students are rewarded with high quality attainment relative
to their ability.

To make this vision a reality, the department takes a collaborative

teamwork approach, engaging all staff and ensuring that their
professional development is ongoing.
Within and beyond the school, the department is considered
to be:

Successful and high achieving

Professional and business-like
Innovative and risk-taking
Well managed with strong and visionary leadership
Award winning (see box).

Awards and other ‘marks’ of achievement

GA Secondary Geography Quality Mark ‘Centre of Excellence’.

The department has led on the school’s attainment of the Interna-
tional School Award (2008), Eco-Schools Green Flag Award (2008)
and Fair Trade Status (2008).
Sustainable and Healthy Schools, awarded 2008.
Ordnance Survey Geography Teacher of the Year 2009.
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Cultural Diversity Quality
Standard Application 2009–2010 – pending.
Affiliated to the Prince’s Teaching Institute – Geography. The subject
leader is the national co-stream coordinator.
The department leads the local Brighton and Hove Geography Cur-
riculum Network which is supported both by the local authority and
the RGS-IBG.
The department, through the ‘Who do we think we are?’ project has
just secured a business partnership with Dr Nick Barratt and has
developed links with the University of Sussex department of
geography.
There are two Chartered Geographers in the department – Maria Larkin
(lead teacher for geography) and Graham Goldup (subject leader).

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 Case studies 127
In the words of Graham Goldrup: ‘Applying for awards has
involved the compilation of portfolios, sometimes with the
cooperation and collaboration of other departments across the
school, and their submission to the relevant organisations. In
some cases funding has been supported from the humanities spe-
cialism. There has been assessment and visits from key stake-
holders and ongoing updates of progress and renewal. In some
cases there have been award ceremonies. There has been a huge
investment of time from staff – especially the subject Leader – but
this has brought about its own rewards, recognition, funding and
further success for the geography department, so the initial
investment has been worth it’.

Example: GA SGQM ‘Centre of Excellence’ award

The school won the Geographical Association’s (GA) key stage 3
Secondary Geography Quality Mark (SGQM) ‘Centre of Excel-
lence’ Award in September 2008.
The quality mark is a framework developed by the GA to
enable subject leaders to raise the standards of geography in
schools, supporting the teaching of high-quality geography and
promoting departmental leadership and management. The
framework, based on the whole-school self-evaluation form
(SEF), encourages creative and critical thinking and the develop-
ment of a dynamic and relevant key stage 3 curriculum. The
quality mark acts as a ‘lever of change’ for the development of
geography, because it engages all staff in the department in a
process of reflection about how well the department is achieving
its aims and where its future priorities lie. The whole team takes
part in an ongoing process of curriculum review, identifying pri-
orities for departmental CPD and sharing good practice.
The SGQM is awarded at two levels – The Quality Award and
a higher ‘Centre of Excellence Award’. The Centre of Excellence
Award, as received by Cardinal Newman, recognizes the depart-
ment’s contribution to promoting high-quality geography beyond
the school and in the local or regional education community.

Example of innovative practice –

The geography department leads the way!
Who Do We Think We Are (WDWTWA)? Enrichment Day Programme,
25–26 June 2009
Key stage 3: year 7 and 8 enrichment programme
Curriculum themes: geography, history, citizenship and PSHE

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 128 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

The purpose of the enrichment days were to enhance and raise

the profile of the community cohesion aspect of the school, with
a view to the school also applying for the Specialist Schools and
Academies Trust Cultural Diversity Standard in 2010. The
WDWTWA project was an ideal opportunity to get students and
teachers to work in a cross-curricular way to think about them-
selves, their identity and belonging and their place in their
communities.
The days were led by the geography department (following
attendance at both the British Council and Royal Geographical
Society CPD events), but involved the whole school and around
700 pupils.
Based on choice, pupils took part in a series of workshops,
relating to the four WDWTWA themes: school and community,
faith and belonging, history and settlement and Britishness.
Under these four themes, there was a range of activities included,
as detailed in Figure 4.3.

School and community Faith and Belonging

A learning trail and guided history of ‘Five a Day’ dance workshop provided
Cardinal Newman School by the Springs Dance Company
BandBazi Circus – Exploring image Visits to the Jewish synagogue, the
and identity through ground skills Buddhist Centre, the Brighton
Producing ‘Who Am I? heraldic Mosque and the Coptic Christian
shields & T-shirt transfers Church to understand similarities and
differences between faiths.
A visit to the Wintershall Estate, near
Guildford to participate in the ‘Life of
Christ’ drama production.

History and Settlement Britishness

A 'dramatic' tour of the historic Lanes Designing and making a Britishness box
in Brighton with Rob Marks (Actor) in art that reflects the students’ identity
Senegalese Drumming Workshop to An image and identity workshop based
explore the music and culture of on Britishness provided by Brighton
Dakar, Senegal where the school Museum
has a Connecting Classrooms link. Are we British or European? provided
A day trip to the Natural History by the modern foreign languages
Museum to explore the evolution of department – A workshop looking at
man and the diversity of species. etymology

Figure 4.3 Lesson themes

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 Case studies 129
Prior to the enrichment days, pupils prepared a personal heritage
and learning journal, which involved researching the origins of
their names (forename and surname), their family roots and
their changing community. Students were able to look at the
streets that they live on and see how these had changed over
time. All students learned about the history of the school and its
own heritage journey from a French boarding convent to the
comprehensive school that it is today.
In further preparation, pupils also attended lead-in assemblies
and, after the workshops, attended a special liturgy based around
belonging and caring, community and the prayers of John Henry
Newman. At the liturgy, pupils also performed, read and played
music to display the skills and outcomes of the workshops; each
student contributed something.
Graham Goldup commented: ‘This was the best enrichment
day programme that we have organized for the year 7 and 8 stu-
dents with a common theme. All departments and students
engaged fully with the concept of WDWTWA, which is central to
the values and mission of our work as a Catholic school. The
activities were engaging and exciting, very much based around
experiential learning and “hands-on experiences”. The days have
been highly valued and commented upon by the students and
there is much visual and display work that has been derived from
the two days’.

The importance of Continuing Professional Development

The department considers Continuing Professional Development
(CPD) to be of the utmost importance in striving for continual
improvement, excellence and innovation, and prides itself on
participating in and delivering high-quality national and local
CPD. The department participates in CPD offered by the RGS-
IBG, the GA, The Prince’s Teaching Institute, awarding bodies
and other providers.

All staff are encouraged and supported to participate in CPD. This is

linked to their key needs, roles and responsibilities within the depart-
ment, the departmental priorities and their own performance man-
agement targets.
Recent CPD has, related to delivering the curriculum, new GCSE and
A/AS-level specifications, fieldwork in geography, virtual learning
environments, outstanding geography learning and teaching, Geo-
graphical Information Systems, Google Earth and other relevant

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 130 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

topics. Members of the department have also attended sustainable

schools and development education training, and have delivered
CPD to wider audiences.
The department has regular active department meetings that focus
on current themes for discussion – for example, underachievement,
personal learning and thinking skills, controlled assessment.
The department also regularly (half-termly) provides CPD opportun-
ities for other geography teachers through the Brighton and Hove
Chartered Geography Curriculum Network Meetings.
The department is also involved, via the subject leader, in geograph-
ical events such as the Prince’s Teaching Institute School’s Programme,
and Graham Goldup is a co-stream developer for the Prince’s Teach-
ing Institute Summer School at Homerton College Cambridge.
There are strong links between the geography department at
Cardinal Newman and other secondary and primary departments.
Graham Goldup and Maria Larkin have run a number of very success-
ful geography conferences for Brighton and Hove.
Members of the geography department also collaborate on the
online Nings and forums (e.g. Staffordshire Learning Network).

Continual improvement
Despite their overwhelming successes, the department continues
to strive forward and improve further. Current departmental
challenges include:

Raising the attainment of boys particularly at Levels 6 and 7 in year 9,

ongoing monitoring, targeting, whole department INSET and track-
ing of performance. The department has worked with Alan Kinder,
chair of education committee, Geographical Association through
QCDA to pilot APP, and student work at Levels 7 and 8 has been
showcased on the exemplification of standards website.
Developing and delivering the schemes of work and the controlled
assessment in year 10 with a view to completing year 10 unit exams
in summer 2010. This has been developed with CPD, sensible plan-
ning and confident application.
Ensuring that year 13 A-level students are able to attain A grades in
summer 2010. There has been a focus on ‘stretch and challenge’ and
developing independent learning.

Lessons for others on innovation and creativity

Cardinal Newman presents an example of creativity and innov-
ation across the board. The department attributes its successes to
the following factors:

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 Case studies 131
Taking a lead and looking for new initiatives and fresh approaches to
ensure that geography is always relevant and meaningful.
Collaborating with other geographers to seek fresh ideas, new
approaches and best practice.
Planning ahead and reviewing departmental position and priorities
(GA SGQM helped with this).
Taking up the opportunities and realizing that anything is possible.
Staff taking risks and being prepared to trial new styles of learning.

Other schools can learn from their success by:

Reviewing their own department’s progress and development plan

and having a long-term vision and goal.
Pacing yourself and realizing that anything is possible.
Distributing responsibility and tasks around teaching staff, linked
into their performance management.

Further information
School website: www.cncs.co.uk
GA SQM Awards: www.geography.org.uk/11–19/secondaryqualitymark
Who Do We Think We Are?: www.wdwtwa.org.uk

A whole-school approach to
sustainability
Currie Community High School, Edinburgh, Scotland
Currie Community High School provides secondary education
for approximately 900 pupils. It has a broad community education
programme for adults and children, being used extensively out-
side of school hours. In addition, the school has a long-standing
commitment to environmental education and now to sustainable
development education (SDE). To date, their achievements in
this area have been marked by a number of prestigious awards
(see Figure 4.4).
Sustainability at Currie High is clearly integrated into the very
fabric of the school. Here, sustainability enjoys real commitment-
from senior management: the head teacher, a deputy head
teacher and the business manager are all fully involved in driving
the agenda forward, and the school also employs an environmental
projects coordinator. This top-down commitment is coupled with

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 132 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

a heavy emphasis on student voice – on pupil engagement,

involvement and ownership of the sustainability of the school. A
number of pupil groups have been established, supported by
teaching and support staff, to look at areas such as energy con-
sumption and generation, school grounds and biodiversity, and
waste reduction.
It is this two-tiered approach that ensures sustainability is
embedded into the curriculum and ethos of the school, as well as
encouraging ‘buy-in’ from pupils.

Examples of sustainable achievements

Energy education programme The school has a clearly defined
and structured energy education programme that permeates
all aspects of the curriculum. For example, in science, pupils
investigate the pros and cons of different energy sources in the
generation of electricity.

S1 SDE course (equivalent to year 7) In 2003, Currie High School, in

partnership with the Worldwide Fund for nature, developed an
SDE course called ‘Tracks through Time’ for all S1 pupils. Pupils
learn about major sustainability issues today, look back at the
way people lived 50 years ago and then imagine life 50 years into
the future, in order to consider what changes need to be made
to make the future more sustainable. The course provides a basic
understanding of the concept of sustainability for all pupils and
is built on in subsequent years. The course is discrete and studied
for one hour per week over 18 weeks.

Eco-Schools programme It is very important to both teach about

sustainability issues and provide opportunities for pupils to take
action to reduce the environmental impact of the school. This
has been implemented at Currie High through the framework
of the Eco-Schools programme. Through this, pupils undertake
an environmental review, identify and discuss points for action
and, together with staff, an action plan is formulated. Pupils
are involved in its implementation, monitoring and evaluation,
and communication with the rest of the school. The school was
awarded its third Eco-Schools Green Flag in 2009.

Tracking and monitoring energy consumption A pupil-led energy

group monitors energy consumption using electricity monitoring
meters, and by accessing available figures for gas and electricity

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 Case studies 133
consumption. Currently, an electronic information system is
being installed which will record both energy consumption and
generation as well as weather parameters. This will enable better
access to data for pupil energy monitoring and curricular use in
physics, geography, maths and IT. This will soon be available on
the internet for others to use.

Sustainable technologies The school has adopted a range of sus-

tainable technologies, including a wind turbine, solar thermal
panels, high-efficiency lighting, and insulation to combat heat
loss. The combination of behavioural changes and installation of
new technologies has led to an overall saving for the school of
around £12,500 per year and 70 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Global school partnership In 2004, Currie High formed a partnership

with Chogoria Girls’ High School in Kenya, and staff and pupils
from both schools have undertaken reciprocal visits. The personal
contact, exchange of information and work on shared curricular
projects has brought to life issues relating to the developing world
and gives a real and personal focus to pupils’ work. Projects
include:

Pupils from several year groups researching renewable energy tech-

nologies suitable for Scotland or Kenya and exchanging this
information.
Pupils compiling a booklet about their own school and exchanging
these.
Designing a mask or jewellery based on a theme of African life and
culture using visual stimuli from Chogoria.
Undertaking conservation work in a local woodland in Currie and in
the forest by Chogoria and comparing the aims and methods
used.

This work has been supported by the Department for Interna-

tional Development’s Global Schools Partnership Curriculum
Grant.

School grounds and biodiversity The school grounds have been

developed for both teaching and amenity use. In the ‘outdoor
classroom’, pupils are taught about food webs, human dependence
on the environment to sustain life, some plant classification,

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 134 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

the basics of plant evolution and methods of pollination, for

example.
For over 20 years, pupils and staff have also been responsible
for the rescue and conservation of ‘Roley’s Wood’, a strip of
ancient woodland adjacent to the school. Trees have been planted
all around the school campus to create a wildlife corridor linking
Roley’s Wood with other small areas of woodland in Currie. For
more information and some resources and activities, go to www.
currieecology.org.uk.

Waste minimization The ‘3 Rs’ (reduce, reuse and recycle) are

very important at Currie High, and the school works to minimize
waste. It does this in a number of ways, for example:

Paper recycling – a rota of S1 and S2 pupils collect and weigh paper

from around the school, during registration on Wednesdays. Last
year alone, 3,275kg of paper were sent for recycling.
Reusing waste in art – several projects within the art curriculum are
undertaken using ‘waste’ materials. In 2009–10, pupils designed and
made various clothes re-using materials and incorporating ‘waste’
items. Subsequently, a fashion show was held where pupils success-
fully modelled their creations.

The energy group in action

The group includes pupil representatives from S2 (year 8), S3 (year 9)
and S6 (year 12). Several members of the group are from the advanced
higher physics class and some from the eco-committee.
In October 2008, the energy group conducted a survey of class-
rooms, during lunchtimes and after school, in order to record if lights
had been switched off in unoccupied rooms. Pupils found that lights
were left on in 25 per cent of unoccupied rooms. The results were fed
back to staff, and the survey was repeated in January 2009, when it was
found that the figure had been reduced to 20 per cent. This 5 per cent
reduction translates to a saving of £530 for the academic year. The sur-
vey is repeated periodically to remind staff to switch off lights in order
to reduce energy use.

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 Case studies 135
In addition, the group researched tips on energy saving relevant to
young people. These tips were read from the daily bulletin to all pupils
in the school for one week in November 2008, and were also displayed
on the Eco-Schools notice board. Following this, tutor groups were
asked to discuss the need to save energy, and pupils and staff were
asked to make a pledge to save energy in their own lifestyles. Pledges
were recorded and re-visited one month later, and respondents were
asked to record whether it was easy or difficult. Most people reported
that it was easy to make the savings they had pledged, and many said
that it was just a question of forming the habit.

What next?
Considerable progress has been made to raise awareness and
make the school more sustainable, but it is recognized there is
much still to be done. The school is currently working to improve
cross-curricular links in several topics, and plans for the coming
year include:

A video diary celebrating the biodiversity of the school grounds for

the International Year of Biodiversity.
A new inter-disciplinary project between biology and geography on
climate change, involving work with Chogoria High School.
The creation of a school fruit orchard.

Award Date

Eco-School’s – Green Flag Award 2004, 2007, 2009

Standard Life achievement Award Highly commended for their submission
on 'Powering and Empowering for a
Sustainable Future' 2009
Royal Zoological Society Environ- 2007 joint winners ‘Hands across
mental Award Continents’
The Ashden Award for sustainable 2009 joint winners
energy

Figure 4.4 Awards received by Currie High School

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Lessons for other schools on sustainability

Currie High School’s work on sustainability is clearly innovative
and ground-breaking in a range of areas. Their success, however,
can be emulated by others. The school attributes its success
largely to the following:

Commitment and involvement of the senior management team.

Dedication and commitment from a range of other staff (including
non-teaching staff ).
Embedding of sustainability across most areas of the curriculum.
Provision of opportunities for pupils to have a ‘voice’ and take prac-
tical action.
Use of real-life case studies, via links and partnerships with schools
abroad.
Use of real data in order to built upon and enrich curriculum topics.

Further information
There are a number of awards, quality marks, schemes, grants and
funding streams available to schools who want to become more
sustainable. For more information, see the websites in Figure 4.5.

Organisation URL

Ashden School Award www.ashdenawards.org

EcoSchools www.eco-schools.org.uk
Carbon Trust www.carbontrust.co.uk
NEF (National Energy Foundation) www.nef.org.uk
Envirowise www.envirowise.gov.uk
Energy Saving Trust www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
Friends of the Earth www.foe.co.uk
BRE www.bre.co.uk
British Council for School Environments www.bcse.uk.net

Figure 4.5 Website addresses

For more detailed information about Currie Community High

School and their work on sustainability, visit their website at
www.curriechs.co.uk.

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 Case studies 137
Creativity in the classroom – ‘School
of the air’
Stopsley High School, Luton
Stopsley High School is an 11–16 mixed comprehensive Special-
ist Sports School in Luton, Bedfordshire, with approximately
900 learners on its roll. The school has many successes to be
proud of – the most recent Ofsted report (2007) was good with
outstanding features, and the head teacher’s vision is to establish
the school as a centre of excellence, working closely and cre-
atively with their partners and community.
The geography department is equally successful – marked by
the award of the Geographical Association’s Centre of Excel-
lence and the Quality Mark for Secondary Geography (SGQM)
in September 2008. See page 127 for further details on the
award. The team is made up of five staff, and among them there
are many talents. The head of the department, Louise Ellis, is
Regional Subject Adviser, Chartered Geographer, Teacher Con-
sultant for the GA and author of a GA KS3 Toolkit – A Thorny
Issue.

The department’s vision for geography

Geography is ‘living’. We are a part of ‘geography’. Hence, we start in the
classroom situation with the known and move towards the unknown.
We endeavour to develop an awareness of and an interest in people,
place and the environment from the personal to the global. While
undertaking this we aim to establish an innovative, creative and enjoy-
able approach to our work.

The department has adopted a whole raft of creative teaching

and learning methods to enthuse and engage its pupils and to
stimulate their interest in geography. Figure 4.6 shows some of
the assessment methods used across key stages and a range of
topics.

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 138 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Examples of assessment methods

Advertisement Ministerial Directive
Argument Newspaper report
Card sort Phone call
Charades Poem/Rap
Chart/table/graph Postcard
Charter Poster
Coded message Recipe
Conversation Shadow play
Design a game Shopping list
Experiment Story
Fact File System diagram
Five Day Diary Venn diagram
Letter to the Editor

Figure 4.6 Assessment methods

Example of innovative and creative practice

Project title: School of the air (Alice Springs) – A Geographical Enquiry
Key stage 3/year 7
Unit of study: Place, space, scale

The school of the air module was used by the school as part of the
GA Making Geography Happen project.
This project fits into a wider scheme of work for year 7:
Personal geography unit – I am, yet who am I? (place, space, scale)
School of the air (place, space, scale)
Toy story (environmental interaction, interdependence)
Dr who (physical and human processes)
Geography in the news.

Geographical enquiry: school of the air

How long does it take you to get to school each morning?
Imagine having a 10-hour drive to school. How would you, your family
and the local community cope with this situation?

Motivating and enthusing learners

The initial enquiry question formed the motivational ‘hook’ and awoke
the pupils’ enthusiasm. Their attention was focused through the design
of a range of activities that challenged learners in a fun and creative

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 Case studies 139

way, for example, ‘think of the link’ activity, jigsaw task, the opportunity
of model making, and the creative use of music and film.

Assessment choices
1. A TV documentary on the school of the air is to be produced
for the BBC. As a researcher for the BBC you have flown out to
Alice Springs to interview staff and children. Produce a tran-
script of an interview with one teacher and one pupil.
2. You attend the school of the air. Your new home tutor from
England arrives in six weeks. Write a letter to your tutor to tell
her/him about your home and school life.
3. Produce a leaflet for the many tourists who visit the school of
the air information centre. The leaflet will give a wide range of
information – What? Where? Why? When? How?
4. Model making: you could make someone like me and just
cover me with information about the school of the air. What?
Where? Why? When? How?

Pupil assessment strategy

An assessment strategy has been adopted across the key stage, for
all assignments. Pupils follow this strategy consistently and are
involved at all stages in assessing their own learning and perform-
ance (Figure 4.7).

Pupil progression
Pupils were provided with a range of interesting methods to
reflect together on what they learned. This was done through
‘Reflection Logs’ and ‘Reflection Blobs’.
Example, Reflection log

What have you learned today?

How have you learned?
What went well? Why?
What did not go well? Why?
What did you enjoy? Why?
What did you not enjoy? Why?
If you did this again, what would you do differently?

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 140 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Stage Task

Stage 1 Portfolio – folder provided for each learner to retain their

assessments and record cards for key stage 3
Stage 2 Planning sheet – completed by each learner when embarking
on an assignment, providing opportunities for peer and
self-assessment
Stage 3 Pupil comment bank – comment bank for the teacher to aid the
marking of assignments. These include both positive comments
and ‘mission statements’ to support target setting
Stage 4 Record card – bi-polar style record card of National Curriculum
levels awarded for assignments
Stage 5 Pupil assessment – pupil assignments
Stage 6 Reflection log – debriefs undertaken at the end of each module

Figure 4.7 Assessment strategy

Teacher reflection
The teacher’s reflection on the assignments was that it clearly
showed evidence of:

Creative, critical independent learning.

Development of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills.
A grasp of the 5 Ws and the use of the personalized structure for
assignments: issue, location, scale, events.
The opportunity to develop skills: for example, the ability to make
informed decisions using geographical evidence.
An understanding of ‘similarities and differences’ between ‘our place’
and one other in a different location.
The application and understanding of concepts such as place, space
and scale.
Children having fun and enjoying the learning process in
geography.

Lessons for others on innovation and creativity

The department’s approach to learning is clearly innovative and
vibrant, and they attribute much of their success to the creative
vision of staff within the department. Head of department Louise
Ellis gives her advice to others – be open minded, creative and
daring! She says: ‘You have to be creative yourself, I think. I
firmly believe that all geographers are capable of this but it takes
time to develop this approach, not only in creating resources, but

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 Case studies 141
also in delivery style. You have to be motivated, you need IT
skills such as using PowerPoint and you need to be prepared to
give things time. Creative activities take a long time to prepare,
but they can cover several weeks work and you then have them
as a permanent resource. You have to dare to move away from
the tradition of text books. Be open-minded. Be prepared to take
risks. Just have a go!’

Further information
Visit the Stopsley High School’s website http://uca.digitalbrain.
com/e2bn/leas/u99/schools/uca/frontpage/home/
Louise Ellis, Head of Department at Stopsley High School is
author of: Key stage 3 Geography Teachers’ Toolkit: A Thorny
Issue, Should I Buy a Valentine’s Rose? (Sheffield: Geographical
Association, 2009).

Task 4.1: Learning from the case studies

Once you have read through the case studies, reflect on them by
answering the following questions:

What common principles have teachers in the case studies

used to create outstanding learning opportunities?
What things do they have in common with your own
teaching?
What stands out as different from what you currently do in
your classroom?
Identify what seems to stand out as the most important prin-
ciple in the case studies that you do not currently address.
Consider how you might build this in to your teaching in the
next half-term. Who will need to help you as you do this, and
what will their role be?
At the end of the next half-term, review your work again. How
well did things go? What were the barriers to implementing
your actions, and what work remains to be done?

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 Taking things further
5
Overview
This chapter explains where geography teachers can go
for further support and guidance on a wealth of issues
relating to their role. It includes details of recommended
resources for geography teaching: books, magazines, the
web, hands-on resources and ICT tools, each annotated to
show strengths. There are also details of professional asso-
ciations and societies to join and where else to go for help
to create a network of support from the local to the
national, including funding ideas.

143

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 144 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Books
Every geography department should have a comprehensive CPD
library of books to inspire, enthuse and motivate teachers. The
following annotated selection of books represents, in the author’s
opinion, some of the essential titles for inclusion in your CPD
library.
Bailey, P. and Fox, P. (1997), The Geography Teachers’ Handbook.
Sheffield: Geographical Association.
A compendium of invaluable information for teachers of
geography from the trusted stable of the Geographical
Association.
Best, B. J. (2003), The Accelerated Learning Pocketbook. Alresford:
Teachers’ Pocketbooks.
Explains in easily digestible chunks the principles of acceler-
ated learning and is full of practical lesson advice.
Best, B., and Thomas, W. (2007), The Creative Teaching & Learning
Toolkit. London: Continuum International Publishing.
Explains the principles of creative teaching and learning, with
lots of examples of lesson activities.
—(2008), The Creative Teaching & Learning Resource Book. London:
Continuum International Publishing.
Over 100 practical lesson activities that promote creative
teaching and learning.
Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B. & William, D. (2003),
Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice. Maidenhead: Open
University Press.
The best text on assessment for learning.
Leat, D., and Chandler, S. (1998), Thinking Through Geography.
Cambridge: Chris Kington Publishing.
Nichols, A., Kinninment, D., and Leat, D. (2000), More Thinking
through Geography. Cambridge: Chris Kington Publishing.
These two invaluable volumes are full of thought-provoking
lesson activities that promote students’ thinking.
Marshall, L., and Rowland, F. (1993), A Guide to Learning Indepen-
dently. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Contains detailed advice on independent learning.
Powell, A. (1997), Handbook of Post-16 Geography. Sheffield: Geog-
raphical Association.
Specific advice on teaching post-16 students in geography.

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 Taking things further 145
Wallace, B., Maker, J., and Cave, D. (2005), Thinking Skills and
Problem-solving – an Inclusive Approach: A Practical Guide for Teachers
in Primary Schools. Oxford: NACE/David Fulton Publishers.
An excellent introduction to the fascinating world of TASC,
which stands for Thinking Actively in a Social Context. It is a
method of working that is especially appropriate to geography
students. Although this book is written for primary school
teachers, it has much relevance for key stage 3 and 4 teaching.
Wood, P., Hymer, B., and Michel, D. (2007), Dilemma-based Learn-
ing in the Humanities: Integrating Social, Emotional and Thinking
Skills. Cambridge: Chris Kington Publishing.
A very useful book that contains many worked examples and
makes extensive links to thinking skills, philosophy for chil-
dren and other aspects of learning.
Wragg, E., and Brown, G. (2001), Questioning in the Secondary
School. Oxford: Routledge Falmer.
An excellent text on questioning strategies.

Magazines
BBC Focus magazine – published monthly
BBC Wildlife Magazine – published monthly
Geographical Magazine – published monthly
National Geographic – published monthly
Teaching Geography – published quarterly

Websites
There is a wealth of superb internet sites for the study of geog-
raphy: so many, in fact, that you could devote a whole book to
the subject. The following annotated selection represents some of
the top internet sites for geography-related learning.

BBC geography: secondary

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16/site/geography.shtml
This site brings with it the trusted brand of the BBC, and the site
is a good place to go to find lesson ideas. There is also a very use-
ful ‘Bitesize’ revision section for students.

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 146 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Carbon detectives’ kit

www.carbondetectiveseurope.org
This site contains an online carbon footprint detector designed to
help students understand key issues relating to climate change.
Students can also learn what their school can do to improve its
sustainability credentials.

CIA world factbook

www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.
html
The Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook provides infor-
mation on the history, people, government, economy, geography,
communications, transportation, military, and transnational
issues for 266 world entities. Constantly updated, the site is a
mine of useful information for use in geography lessons and in
student research projects.

Climate for classrooms

http://climate4classrooms.org/en
Provides high-quality free teaching resources on climate change
for students age 11 and up. The site includes interactive data sets
showing the latest global and national climate predictions; cli-
mate science brought to life by the experts; and case studies
investigating global, national, and local impacts and solutions.
There is also guidance for teachers on how to use all these
resources.

Cloud appreciation society

www.cloudappreciationsociety.org
A wonderful idiosyncratic site full of superb photos of clouds and
atmospheric phenomena and a site to go for inspiration when
planning weather and climate work. The site contains many fan-
tastic images that can be used to attract students’ attention at the
start of lessons.

Digital geography
www.digitalgeography.co.uk

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 Taking things further 147
A site maintained by advanced skills teacher Noel Jenkins which
focuses on using new technologies as part of the geography cur-
riculum. Information is clearly organized, and the content
includes an interesting range of pod movies.

Geograph
www.geograph.org.uk
This ambitious project has its aim to collect representative photos
of every 1km grid square in Britain and Ireland. A visit to any
area produces a photo mosaic which gives a real sense of place.
Ideal for starter activities and for students to gain a visual repre-
sentation of the places they are studying.

Geographical association
www.geography.org.uk
The GA’s website is a great place to go to gain practical support for
organizing your geography curriculum and for lesson activities.
You’ll need to be a member of the GA to access some parts of the
site. An excellent feature of the site is the inclusion of resources
and lesson ideas linked to current affairs. There is also informa-
tion on grants for geography teachers plus term quizzes for stu-
dents. See also the Planet Sport website below.

Geography all the way

www.geographyalltheway.com
This is Richard Allaway’s critically acclaimed site, with a wealth
of superb learning resources. The site uses ingenious talking
heads to guide users through a series of mini enquiries. Another
innovative feature of the site is a weekly ‘where in the world’
quiz which features a photograph which visitors need to work
out where in the world it was taken.

Geography at the movies

www.gatm.org.uk
This site contains free video resources for geography teachers. It
is a place to go to access and share videos which can used
to enliven geography lessons. The videos are arranged into
categories.

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 148 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Geography dictionary and glossary

www.tuition.com.hk/geography
This is perhaps the internet’s most comprehensive dictionary and
glossary for students, with over 1,400 terms defined, all cross
referenced. An ideal place for students to go to gain concise defin-
itions of all the terms they are likely to come across and ideal for
building up their own personal dictionary (see page 102).

Geography in the news

www.geographyinthenews.rgs.org
This subscription-only site, hosted by the Royal Geographical
Society, provides some wonderful resources linked to everyday
events around the world. Using the site will help you to bring
geography alive for your students.

Geography on the internet

www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk
A very useful and long-established site for geography teachers
and students. There are lots of online activities, separate parts of
the site aimed at key stage 3 and GCSE students, some excellent
videos and host of other useful content. The online A–Z of geog-
raphy-related websites is definitely an area to bookmark for your
Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Geography pages
www.geographypages.co.uk
One of the best geography portal sites on the web, with links to
hundreds of sites that will enrich the teaching of the subject. A
‘must-add’ addition to your geography VLE.

The geography site

www.geography-site.co.uk
Contains hundreds of resources to aid the teaching of the subject,
plus an excellent image gallery of almost 1,000 images to use in
lessons, homework and wall displays.

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 Taking things further 149
Geography teaching today
www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk
This is the website of the Geography Action Plan, which is seek-
ing to raise the profile of geography teaching in primary and sec-
ondary schools. There are some excellent lesson ideas on the site,
together with the news of training events that are free for geog-
raphy teachers. You can also use the site to find out about Geog-
raphy Ambassadors who will come into your school to be a
champion for the subject.

Geointeractive
www.geointeractive.co.uk
Contains over 1,000 free resources donated by teachers from
across the United Kingdom, plus a wide range of links and other
useful information. An excellent collection of resources to use in
your lessons, with many starting points for exciting learning
journeys.

Georesources
www.georesources.co.uk
An award-winning portal site with hundreds of lessons ideas and
links to the world of geography. An interesting feature of the site
is the inclusion of four virtual fieldwork units.

Geotube
www.geotubevideos.co.uk
A wonderful collection of over 1,000 videos for geography teach-
ers to use. The videos are arranged in five channels: environmen-
tal, physical, social, economic and other. You can get seven days
of access free; after this time, you need to donate £10 to charity
to continue to gain access to the videos.

Global gateway
www.globalgateway.org
This is the site to visit if you want to form a link with a school in
another country in order to carry out collaborative work. This

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 150 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

site also contains comprehensive support material to help you

get the best from your international links.

Global eye
www.globaleye.org.uk
Winner of a Geographical Association Gold Award, the Global
Eye website is based on the magazine of the same name and
focuses on international development and environmental issues.
The site includes teachers’ resources and indices for countries
and themes. This site is a wonderful source of articles which can
be used with students.

Google earth
http://earth.google.com
Arguably the best mapping website, Google earth offers a wealth
of opportunities to use digital mapping and aerial photography in
the classroom.

Juicy geography
www.juicygeography.co.uk
A wonderful collection of ideas, lessons and resources for geog-
raphy teachers and assembled by advanced skills teacher Noel
Jenkins. Noel has put together a very stimulating site which is
certainly one to bookmark for frequent visits.

Key stage 3 schemes of work

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_geography/?
view=get
Part of the standards site, this very useful resource gives schemes
of work for each of the 24 units of the key stage 3 syllabus, with
specific learning objectives and lesson ideas. The site also shows
you how you can make links to other subject areas in an espe-
cially detailed part of the site, as well as containing advice on
sequencing the units.

London grid for learning

http://cms.lgfl.net/web/lgfl/geography

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 Taking things further 151
This site contains some very useful resources to aid geographical
learning, including some detailed project-based materials. A
recent addition to the site is an extensive set of resources on
managing nuclear waste, which culminates in a decision-making
exercise.

The Met Office

www.metoffice.gov.uk
Far more than just a place to go to find out about tomorrow’s
weather, the Met Office website is a mine of useful information
and background resources that can be used to enrich the teach-
ing of weather and climate. Of topical interest are special features
about the weather forecast for major sporting and other events.
The satellite images on the site are especially useful.

National association for environmental education

www.naee.org.uk
A charity dedicated to promoting the cause of environmental
education. Their website contains a selection of articles from their
journal Environmental Education as well as a very useful selection
of links to other environmental websites. You can become a
member of the association, which then entitles you to free copies
of the journal and the opportunity to attend conferences and
meetings.

National Geographic
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com
National Geographic’s award-winning website, with a wealth of
articles and learning resources for teachers and students. One of
the major strengths of the site is the superb collection of high-
quality photos which can be used in presentations to students or
by the students themselves in their work.

National Geographic map machine

http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps
This is probably the best world mapping site on the web, with the
facility to select any country in the world and display a map with
the national flag and other factual information such as population,

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 152 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

capital, main religions, languages, literacy rate and life expect-

ancy. There is also information on the country’s history and
economy. More recently, a new feature has been introduced,
called ‘View From Above’, which shows maps of countries based
on satellite photographs.

National Hurricane center

www.nhc.noaa.gov
The home of the US National Hurricane Center, this site is a
superb place to find out about the latest tropical storms and hur-
ricanes. There is also extensive information about preparing for
hurricanes, as well as historical information on past hurricanes
and their paths.

Ordnance survey mapping

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/opendata
The ordnance survey open data mapping site provides some of
the most detailed and accurate mapping available for the United
Kingdom. You can zoom in to any location in the country or
search using place name, postcode or grid reference. Great for
developing your students’ mapwork skills.

Ordnance survey mapzone

http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/index.html
This is a fun site for students to learn about mapping. There is a
range of challenges and games offered, including a very useful
GIS simulator programme which introduces the benefits of GIS
through a real-life decision-making exercise. This is a site which
is sure to entertain and educate your students.

Planet Sport
www.geography.org.uk/projects/planetsport
A website which contains resources linking geographical themes –
such as regeneration, economic development and tourism – with
global sporting events. This is an ideal site to visit to acquire
resources which help to engage students who may not tradition-
ally be interested in geography.

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 Taking things further 153
Royal Geographical Society
www.rgs.org
The website of the United Kingdom’s learned society for geog-
raphers, packed with useful information and links of use to geog-
raphy teachers. Of special interest is the grants section of the
website which outlines some of the funding opportunities aimed
at geography teachers. See also Geography in the news above.

Staffordshire Learning Network

www.sln.org.uk/geography
Widely regarded as the best local-authority maintained geog-
raphy site, the Staffordshire Learning Network offers a host of
excellent resources to spice up your geography lessons. There are
also some extremely useful forums where you can discuss any-
thing from Ofsted inspections to job opportunities.

The Tornado Project

www.tornadoproject.com
A useful site to learn about tornadoes and their effects. This site
has lots to interest students, including a stark set of ‘tornado stor-
ies’ which tell of the dramatic impact of tornadoes on people.

Teachers’ TV: geography

www.teachers.tv/subjects/secondary/geography
Containing a databank of videos from the archives of Teachers’
TV, this site comes from a trusted name in educational resources.
A useful feature of the site is the ability to search by keywords.

US Geological Survey: volcanoes

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov
Probably the finest volcano site on the web, this resource pro-
vides a wealth of information about the world of volcanism.
The site contains details of all currently erupting volcanoes,
resources for teachers and frequently asked questions about
volcanoes. An engaging feature is a series of webcams from
active volcano sites around the world. The site represents a rich

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 154 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

source of information for both students and staff wanting to

know more about volcanoes.

Worldwide earthquake locator

http://tsunami.geo.ed.ac.uk/local-bin/quakes/mapscript/
home.pl
This dynamic site, produced by the University of Edinburgh, aims
to provide up-to-date information and detailed dynamic maps of
earthquakes across the world within a maximum of 24 hours of
their occurrence. You can see earthquake predictions, view an
animation of recent quakes and learn about the very latest quakes
around the world.

ICT tools
The following selection of ICT tools represents a small sample of
the myriad of programmes available that enrich the teaching of
geography. The programmes listed represent tried-and-tested
tools for geographical learning. Note that there are many free
resources online which are perfectly adequate for use with
students, and it is not necessary to spend large sums of money
in order to equip your department with expensive branded
products.

Students should have access to a content generator programme that

enables them to create content and place it on the school’s VLE.
There are some excellent free programmes available on the web.
Students should also have access to a video editing programme to
make the most of digital video and images. A programme that
includes the ability to generate animations should be used. Again,
there are many good free examples available on the web.
Two of the best GIS programmes are ESRI UK’s Digital Worlds pack-
age and Aegis 3’s Success Guides. Both have the potential to open up
the huge possibilities of GIS programmes to your students.
The company Birchfield (www.birchfield.co.uk) produces some excel-
lent classroom resources for geography in the form of curriculum
content, activities and games. These range from resources on fragile
environments to weather and climate. There is a very useful pro-
gramme which includes nine geographical games for whiteboards,
which is ideal for starters and plenaries.

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 Taking things further 155
The company Boardworks (www.boardworks.co.uk) has worked hard
to improve its offerings to geography teachers in recent years. Their
toolkit product for fieldwork is particularly recommended.
Scamp 4 (produced by Pebbleshore Ltd; www.pebbleshore.co.uk) –
this CD-ROM is an interactive GIS mapping programme containing
census data. It enables much of the 2001 census data to be displayed
using a variety of different methods and scales. The CD-ROM is
enhanced by the use of OS raster master for selected locations at a
scale of 1:250,000 on which census data can be superimposed.
There are an increasing number of applications (or ‘apps’) now avail-
able for smart phones (often free or very cheap), many of which have
the potential to add impact to your lessons. New apps are being
launched all the time, so it is well worth keeping track of new releases
to see what they could offer for your geography teaching.

Hands-on resources
There are some excellent games and other hands-on resources
which can support your work as a geography teacher. Three per-
sonal favourites are included below:

The Chocolate game – introducing the idea of fair trade in a fun and
engaging way (available online at www.learn.christianaid.org.uk/
YouthLeaderResources/choc_trade.aspx).
Tools for logovisual thinking (see page 85) – reusable hands-on equip-
ment to help see what you are thinking, available from www.logovi-
sual.com.
Global steps – an excellent card game which helps you calculate how
many earths would be needed if everybody consumed the same
resources as you. For more information, see www.bestfootforward.
com/globalsteps.

Professional associations and

societies
Geographical association
www.geography.org.uk
The society which supports the work of geography teachers in
schools and colleges, publishing several learned journals as well
as the invaluable Teaching Geography magazine.

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 156 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Geology society
www.geolsoc.org
Offers Fellowship opportunities for geography teachers who have
a specialist interest in the geological side of the subject. There is
also the option to become a Chartered Geologist. A range of pub-
lications are produced by the society.

Royal geographical society

www.rgs.org
Offers Fellowship opportunities and the chance to gain the status
of Chartered Geographer. The RGS also publishes a range of
printed journals, including the excellent Geographical Magazine.

Royal meteorological society

www.rmets.org
The national society for teachers interested in weather and cli-
mate. The website includes an excellent section of educational
resources called MetLink, with details of weather; and a curricu-
lum, lesson plans and lots of climate and weather resources. The
site also contains annotated links to many other climate and
weather websites.

Selected funding sources

The following websites fast-track you to some of the best funding
sources for school-based geography teaching and geography
enrichment activities. It is also worth investigating some of the
excellent subscription-based websites which can provide very
detailed information on funding sources from their vast data-
bases. The best three are www.funderfinder.org.uk (offers cut
price charges for 24-hour access), www.grantfinder.co.uk and
www.grants4schools.info (offers a free trial).
Bear in mind that almost all funders want you to add some-
thing new to the curriculum and will not simply fund the pur-
chase of textbooks and other standard classroom equipment. If
you are seeking funds for such things, then there are some spe-
cific funding sources which can help you generate cash (see
‘Funds for income generation’ below). You can also raise funds
through the staging of fundraising events such as sponsored
walks and similar activities.

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 Taking things further 157
Before you embark on any attempts to gain funding from the
following sources, it is wise to speak first with your school’s fund-
raising coordinator (or, failing that, business manager/bursar).
This person is likely to understand the bidding process and should
be able to provide very helpful advice on submitting bids. Some
local authorities also employ a fundraising manager who, again,
would be an invaluable person to talk to.
Some of the charitable trusts mentioned are best approached
in tandem with another department at your school, or through a
single whole school application which includes specific benefits
for the geography department. These are indicated in the
listings.
You can increase the number of grant schemes which your
school can apply to by channelling your application through the
PTA of schools’ friends’ groups, if these have charitable status.
This is because some funders will only donate to registered
charities.

Awards for all

www.awardsforall.org.uk
Up to £10,000 is available for projects which add something new
to the curriculum. The aim of the scheme is to support small,
local community-based projects which bring benefits to a wide
range of people. When applying for these awards, it is helpful to
think in terms of a geography project which can involve other
members of the community. Applications can be submitted any
time.

Example: a school received a £5,400 grant in order to publish a geog-

raphy trail leaflet which guided people around the geographical fea-
tures of the local town. The leaflet was given out to local residents.

British Ecological Society innovation in ecological

education grants
www.britishecologicalsociety.org/grants/education/iee.php
The British Ecological Society is a charity which aims to promote
and foster the study of ecology. Its Innovation in Ecological Edu-
cation Grant scheme is to help teachers to develop creative and
innovative approaches in communicating ecology to young
people. Funds can also be used to evaluate the teaching of ecol-
ogy. Projects can be based inside or outside the classroom. As

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 158 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

ecology and the study of ecosystems and habitats forms part of

the geography syllabus, especially at A level, this is a scheme that
can be used to enrich the teaching of the subject. Up to £1,500 is
available to successful schools, and there are two deadline for
bids: 15 March and 15 September.

Example: a school received an award of £1,500 to investigate how

studies into the ecology and conservation of a wild flower meadow
can be enhanced by the used of notebook computers. Three note-
book computers were purchased and loaded with plant and bird
identification software for use in and outside the classroom. Also
loaded were web pages on the ecology and conservation of wild
flower meadows. The teacher monitored the use of the notebook
computers during the unit of study on the wild flower meadow, and
students were asked to give feedback on how useful the notebooks
had been.

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

www.gulbenkian.org.uk
This is a major grant-making trust which has made awards to
schools in the past. Its Innovation Fund is currently the main
fund to apply to; this aims to fund genuinely innovative ideas
and partnerships across cultural, education and social interests.
Priority will be given to projects that best meet the organization’s
strategic aims, namely cultural understanding, fulfilling potential
and environment. Funding is available in the range £10,000 to
£25,000. Initial ideas can be submitted at any time; if short listed,
further information will be sought. The fact that this find makes
large donations means that it would be a good idea to team up
with another department to make a joint bid, or even make one
bid on behalf of the whole school. You would also be well advised
to include some community element in your bid.

Example: a school was given £12,000 to set up a virtual classroom in

a youth centre to educate disaffected students.

Comenius awards
www.britishcouncil.org/comenius-schools.htm
Up to £25,000 is available to support collaborative projects
between schools in the United Kingdom and those in other parts

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 Taking things further 159
of Europe. The funding available is designed to support work on
cross-curricular projects and covers study visits, which can
include students. This is an ideal funding source which can be
applied for in partnership with colleagues in other departments
at your school, with the aim of carrying out project work that
compliments various departmental syllabuses. Applications can
be submitted any time.

Example: a school was given a £15,000 grant to support an environ-

mentally themed exchange visit with a school in Brittany. The stu-
dents produced a bilingual book on the environment in their home
area.

Ernest Cook Trust

www.ernestcooktrust.org.uk
This trust fund provides grants to schools and other not-for-profit
organizations wishing to encourage young people’s interest either
in the countryside and the environment, the arts, or aiming to
raise levels of literacy and numeracy. There are two main schemes:
a small ground programme for awards of up to £4,000 (deadlines
are bimonthly) and a large programme for awards of over £4,000
(deadlines 31 January and 31 July).

Example: a school received a grant of £2,000 to build a weather sta-

tion which encouraged the students to work together to gather data
and ‘own’ the equipment.

Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk
One of the largest grant-giving bodies in the United Kingdom,
with over £20 million given to projects annually. The Founda-
tion has awarded several schools grants for projects which have
a strong community element. One of the current strands that
the charity is keen to support is research into teaching and
learning approaches that address current challenges in schools
for which large grants of up £250,000 are available (though
schools are likely to bid for much less than this!). This is an
ideal fund to apply to, in collaboration with another depart-
ment at your school, or to make one application on behalf of
the whole school.

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 160 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

Example: a school was awarded £6,000 to run a fair trade awareness

week, which included extensive collaboration with the local branch
of Oxfam. Students got involved in a range of hands-on activities
while learning about fair trade and its implications for their lives, and
members of the local community were invited into school to see the
outcomes of the week.

Fawcett fellowships
www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/admissions-and-teaching/information-for-
schools/introduction
These fellowships are designed to enable UK-based teachers in
mid career to study at University College London (UCL) for a
term. Applicants should develop their own plan of how to spend
the time: for example, bringing themselves up to date with
aspects of the discipline, exploring new teaching fields, develop-
ing new skills, or preparing new teaching materials. Fellows have
full access to the library and IT resources at UCL, and to the
expertise of its geography staff. They should then return to their
permanent jobs – refreshed and ready to stimulate others. The
funding is available to fund supply teaching cover for the dur-
ation of the fellowship. The fellowships offer a very valuable CPD
opportunity for secondary school geography teachers. The dead-
line for applications is 30 April each year.

First Light
www.firstlightonline.co.uk
First Light is an organization that funds and inspires the making
of short films, reflecting the diversity of young people’s lives. This
is an organization to apply to if you are interested using film on
a geographical theme to inspire your students. There is a wide
range of different funding schemes to apply to, with the amount
of money available typically being in the low thousands of
pounds.

Example: a school received £3,000 for a film that explored local

people’s attitude to a woodland that was threatened with demolition
for a new housing estate.

Foyle Foundation
www.foylefoundation.org.uk

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 Taking things further 161
This is a charitable trust which has had a good record of support-
ing schools over recent years. Grants are available of between
£5,000 and £20,000 for projects that are based on learning, arts
or health, with precedence given to projects that make a differ-
ence because funding is difficult to gain; projects which supply
direct advantage to the public and projects which help the com-
munity, rather than specialist activity groups. The Foyle Founda-
tion has been especially good at funding library and ICT
developments in schools.

Example: a school received a £5,000 grant to have its library upgraded,

including a special section on environmental issues.

Frederick Soddy Trust

www.soddy.org
Grants of up to £850 are available for fieldwork projects, with
those projects including a strong element of human geography
being favoured. A report must be provided to the trust on com-
pletion. Application is made via a 500-word statement which
must be returned by the deadline of 15 December.

Example: the Settle Millennium Map project was funded through this
trust (see page 108).

Global School Partnerships starter grants

www.camb-ed.com/home/Aboutus/NotforprofitFoundation/
DGSPStarterGrant/tabid/1354/Default.aspx
This is an ideal funding scheme for schools embarking on a col-
laborative project with a school overseas in order to promote
global learning through the curriculum. Grants of £250 are pro-
vided through the Department for International Development to
support schools in finding a partner to work with. The funds are
intended to fund supply cover and travel to workshops on the
Global School Partnerships scheme, or in-school training by a
Development Education Centre.

Human Scale Education

www.hse.org.uk
Provides grants for education projects with a strong human dimen-
sion. Human Scale Education is an education reform movement

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 162 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

committed to small-scale learning communities based on the

values of democracy, fairness and respect, in which children and
young people are known and valued as individuals. Applications
can be submitted any time.

Example: the Settle Environment Fair project was funded through

this trust (see page XX).

Learning through Landscapes

www.ltl.org.uk
Joining this charity with give you access to expertise that can
fast-track you to a range of funding opportunities to make your
school grounds a better resource for learning. Applications can be
submitted any time.

Example: a school received grants up to the value of £10,000 to help

transform its grounds into a superb learning zone. The grants enabled
the creation of a sensory garden, a pond and a sculpture trail.

Ray Y Gildea Jr. award

www.rgs.org/OurWork/Grants/Teaching/Ray+Y+Gildea+Jr+Award.
htm
This scheme, administered by the Royal Geographical Society,
supports innovation in geography teaching and learning in sec-
ondary and higher education. The outcomes of the grant should
show direct benefits to students in geography. A single grant of
£1,000 is awarded annually, with the deadline for applications
falling in mid October.

Example: the 2009 award winner was ‘A virtual journey across Green-
land’, a project which aims to inspire and create a sense of curiosity in
geography students by demonstrating live science while crossing
the Greenland icecap with dog teams. It aims to make polar science
more accessible and real in the classroom through the use of virtual
technologies.

Royal Geographical Society innovative teaching

grants
www.rgs.org/OurWork/Grants/Teaching/Innovative+Geography
+Teaching+Grants.htm

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 Taking things further 163
This excellent scheme aims to fund innovative geography teach-
ing in secondary schools. The grants are designed to enable geog-
raphy teachers to develop imaginative or creative teaching
materials and teaching methods. The aim is to serve both geog-
raphy students and the wider teaching community. Each year,
five grants of £800 are offered, and the deadline for applications
falls in mid October.

Example: previous grants have gone to a wide range of projects,

including an online international weather station, a geography and
the internet project and the creation of a multifaceted geography
courtyard.

Royal Meteorological Society

www.rmets.org
For £15, schools can join the society which gives them access to
grants to purchase meteorological equipment, carry out field-
work and encourage the study of meteorology in schools. Grants
can also be obtained for professional development.

Royal Society science partnership grants

http://royalsociety.org/partnership
Although this scheme is aimed mainly at science teachers, there
are opportunities for geography teachers wishing to explore the
scientific side of the subject. Funding of £3,000 is available to
support teachers, scientists and engineers working together to
inspire young people. The aim is to enrich teaching by bringing
scientific study alive in schools. All projects must involve a
teacher and a practising scientist/engineer who is external to the
school. The deadline for applications falls in November.

Example: a school received a grant of £2,200 to fund a project to

investigate the effects of water quality on the biodiversity of the river
Thames.

SIFA educational trust

www.plans-ltd.co.uk/trusts/index.htm
This is a funding body dedicated to channelling resources into
schools. As well as bursary schemes to partly cover fees for
certain students, there are grants available to fund educational

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 164 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

projects, books, equipment and school trips. Bids must be sub-

mitted by 31 January, and there is no minimum or maximum
grant amount.

Trees for Schools fund

www.treecouncil.org.uk
This is a funding scheme that will help you plant trees on your
school grounds, which can then be used as a learning resource in
geography (and other) lessons. Schools are able to apply for trees
for projects up to £700 in value, with 75 per cent of the costs
being provided by the Trees for Schools grant (the remainder will
need to be raised by your school). Eligible costs include the trees
themselves and any necessary supports and aids to establishment
such as stakes and fertilizer. The spirit of the scheme is to involve
students as closely as possible in the planting and maintenance of
the trees.

Volvo adventure competition

www.volvoadventure.org/home.aspx
This award scheme, run by Volvo in partnership with the United
National Environment Programme, is especially suitable for
teachers wishing to develop geography enrichment projects with
an environmental flavour. Cash awards of up to $10,000 are
offered to groups of students who carry out an environmental
project in their local community, plus the chance to win a trip to
Gothenburg to take part in a young person’s conference on the
environment. The group must contain between two and five
members between the ages of 13 and 16, and a report of the pro-
ject must be submitted electronically. The deadline for submis-
sion falls in January.

Example: a Russian school won the 2008 award scheme with a pro-
ject that saved a local nature park from destruction by industry. The
students cleaned up the park and gave it a new life so that the com-
munity could re-engage with it.

Young Roots heritage lottery

www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/programmes/Pages/youngroots.
aspx

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 Taking things further 165
Young Roots is a grant programme designed to engage young
people aged 13–25 with their heritage, with up to £25,000 being
offered. The project should stem from the interests and ideas of
young people who are supported by schools to develop skills,
build confidence and connect with their local communities. A
further aim is to make links between schools and heritage organ-
izations, so you should consider which local organizations you
could partner with. Applications can be submitted at any time.

Example: a school received a grant of £9,000 to investigate the

biodiversity of a series of wild flower meadows close to the school
site, in partnership with a local natural history society. Students
learned about the ecology and management of the site and devel-
oped their fieldwork skills.

Funds from income generation

The following is a list of funding sources which can help you
generate cash for your school, which can then be spent on any-
thing you want, to improve standards for students. Additionally,
the box gives five innovative ideas for raising funds through
events. A concerted effort to maximize funds from the sources
listed below could bring your school over £5,000 in unrestricted
funds.

Bag 2 School
www.bag2school.com
Bag 2 School is a business which pays £200 per tonne to schools
for unwanted second-hand clothing. It offers an off-the-shelf
solution for school fund-raising, helps the environment, and pro-
vides employment at home and abroad. The majority of the
clothing is shipped to wholesalers in Latvia, Lithuania and Africa,
where it is sold in its original state to the general public through
retailers. Schools have been successful in raising over £1,000
through the Bag 2 School scheme.

Ink cartridge recycling

www.cashforcartridges.co.uk

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 166 The Geography Teacher’s Handbook

There are substantial sums of money to be made by selling used

printer cartridges to specialist dealers, who then refill them and
sell them on to the public. Some schools have managed to raise
over £500 a year by collecting such cartridges from the school
printers and also making an appeal to parents and the wider
community. A range of companies specialize in this sort of recyc-
ling, with the details of your local companies appearing in the
yellow pages. A national company specializing in this type of
recycling is Cash for Cartridges.

Mobile phone recycling

www.recycool.org
In common with used printer cartridges, unwanted mobile
phones can similarly be sold to specialist dealers who harvest
usable parts from them. Once again, a sum in the region of £500
is attainable if you manage to get everyone in the school com-
munity on-board. Again, the Yellow Pages should be your first
port of call. A national company specializing in mobile phone
(and printer cartridge) recycling is Recycool.

Paper recycling
Some schools manage to bring in over £1,500 each year by organ-
izing the collection of waste paper. Your first port of call if you
want to investigate this lucrative source of funding would be
your local paper merchant. While setting up such a scheme is
sure to be labour intensive – at least initially – schools have suc-
cessfully gained the support of an enthusiastic band of volunteers
who have taken the lead in coordinating the collection.

Innovative income generation ideas

for geography departments
Geography photo competition – the school community is invited
to enter a geographical photo competition where they have to
take an image of geographical interest. Entries cost £1, and a
prize donated by a local camera shop is given to the winning
entry.

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 Taking things further 167
Sponsored orienteering event – with students taking part to
develop their map reading skills.
Geography quiz night – teams of parents and students come along
to an evening of geography questions (pub style) with prizes
donated by local companies. A raffle held at night raises additional
funds.
Guided geography walks – students (perhaps in year 11 and above)
are trained in the local geography around the school and then lead
guided geography walks for members of the public who make a
donation to the department for attending the walk. The student is
rewarded through the provision of stationery for school use,
together with the knowledge that they are putting their geograph-
ical skills to good use.
Geography fact file – the department offers to prepare fact files
on countries and cities being visited by parents and other mem-
bers of the public on holidays. The students are responsible for
preparing the fact files as part of their geography studies, and the
recipients make a donation to the department upon receiving the
fact file.

Task 5.1: Staying at the cutting edge

The books, magazines, websites, ICT tools, hands-on tools, organiza-
tions and funding sources listed above are all designed to help you
keep your geography teaching at the cutting edge. Identify ten elem-
ents listed which are new to you, and consider how you will use them
to improve your geography teaching. Time will inevitably be needed to
research things further and plan; so, create a timeline for the next few
weeks showing how you will divide up your time as you work to intro-
duce the new ideas into your classroom. When you are in need of fur-
ther inspiration, you can return to this list and choose another five
things which you would like to work on.

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 Index

Page numbers in bold denote figures.

Barratt, N. 126 Ellis, L. 137

Best, B. 29, 85 emotional intelligence (EI) 30–1
Accelerated Learning in the geography
Pocketbook 29, 35 classroom 30–1
Blake, A. 86
Bloom, B. 81 five domains of effective
Bloom’s taxonomy 81–3 teaching 8
Bloom’s learning rose 82
Gardner, H. 26–7, 30
challenges faced by geography Frames of Mind: The Theory of
teachers 24–6 Multiple Intelligences 26
key stage 3 challenges General Certificate of Secondary
(year 7–9; age 11–13) 24–5 Education (GCSE) 5,
key stage 4 challenges 24–5, 75
(year 10–11; age geographers
14–16) 25 need for 2
key stage 5 challenges Geographical Association
(year 12–13; age (GA) 127
17–18) 25–6 Geographical creativity 16–17,
Continuing Professional 18, 19–20
Development (CPD) 129 Geographical learning
The Creative Teaching & Learning models 7–20
Toolkit (by Best and creativity cycle, the 19
Thomas) 8, 19 five domains of effective
teaching 8
differentiation 44–52 Four Hemispheres of Effective
for gifted and talented Geography Teaching 9
students 46–8 geography
in mixed ability classroom 48–9 classroom climate for 10–11,
in practice 52 11, 12
Dilemma based Learning in the creativity for 4–5
Humanities (by Wood, cross-curricular links 3–4
Hymer and Michel) 90 pressures on 5–6

169

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 170 Index

geography continued independent learning 38–9

reflection for 15–16 Information and
teaching and learning strategies Communication
for 12–13, 13, 14–15 Technology (ICT) in 64–75
vision for 2–3, 9–10 geographical information
geography learning systems (GIS) 74–5
accelerated learning 33–5 ideas for using 69–73
action research 96–8 use of internet 66–7
assessment for learning use of mobile phones 68–9
(AfL) 53–60 virtual learning
methods 55 environments (VLEs) 65–6
principles of 55 YouTube as a resource 67–8
celebration and promotion innovative approaches 98–112
of 95–6 building geography
collaboration with other dictionary 102
schools 112–13 conducting lucky dip 101–2
coursework 75–6 debates and role plays 100
developing literacy inviting guest speakers 98–9
through 39–40 issuing geography
examples 40 newsletter 101
developing numeracy kinaesthetic learning 103–5
through 42 playing ‘any questions?’
developing oracy through 40–1 game 103
examples 41 playing geography
development of thinking skills Blockbusters 102–3
through 79–85 staging end-of-topic
Logovisual thinking quiz 103
(LVT) 85–6 staging geographical
mind mapping 86–8 assemblies 100–1
dilemma-based learning 88–90 staying abreast 105–6
case study 89–90 use of creative
features of 88–9 writing 99–100
effective questioning for 91–2 use of external funds
fieldwork 60–4 for 108–12
creative approaches to 63–4 using unusual stimuli 106
fieldsketching 63 writing geography
health and safety booklets 101
matters 60–1 pairwork 52–3
measurements using personalizing learning 43–4
specialized differentiation 44–52
equipment 61–2 using music for 36–8
questionnaires 62–3 using role play for 42–3
geographical enquiry 76, 76–9 geography teaching 115–41
geography enrichment associations and societies that
activities 94–5 support 155–65
groupwork 53 books for 144–5

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 Index 171
colloborative, whole shool Making Meaning: learning through
enrichment logovisual thinking (by Best,
at Cardinal Newman Catholic Varney and Blake) 85
School 125–31 metacognition 82–3
creativity in classroom in practice 83
at Stopsley High Michel, D. 90
School 137–41 mind map 86–8
cross-curricular links example of 88
at The Belvedere multiple intelligences 26–9
Academy 122–5 application in geography
funding sources for 165–7 classroom 27
hands-on resources for 155 learning activities for 28–9
ICT in 116–22
ICT tools 154–5 Newman, J. H. 129
video diaries at Aylesbury
High School 116–22 outstanding geography lessons,
magazines for 145 key principles of 16–17, 17
sustainability, whole-school
approach to Royal Geographical Society
at Currie Community High (RGS) 116
School 131–6
websites for 145–54 Secondary Geography Quality
Goldup, G. 126–7, 129, 130 Mark (SGQM) 127
Goleman, D. 30 Shepherd, S. 123–4
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Smith, A. 35
Matter More Than IQ 31 The Brain’s Behind It 35
Sterry, G. 125
Hymer, B. 90 sustainable development
education (SDE) 131–2
ideal geography student,
the 20 Thinking Actively in a Social
Context (TASC) 84
kinaesthetic learning 103–5 TASC problem-solving
Kitchen, B. 116 wheel 84
Thinking Through Geography and
Larkin, M. 126, 130 More Thinking Through
learning styles 31–3 Geography (by David
activities for different Leat) 79
styles 32
and multiple intelligences 33 Varney, J. 86
lesson planning and schemes of
work 22–3, 23, 24 Wallace, B. 84
logovisual thinking (LVT) 85–6 Wood, P. 90

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