Geographical Association

The Register of Research in Primary Geography has led to the publication of numerous research articles through a series of Occasional Papers. The content is varied and together the articles provide an excellent introduction to action research in primary geography.

Rachel Bowles has written a short piece about the lack of research into primary geographical and environmental education and how the collection of articles presented here can help teachers get started with active classroom research.

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1. Action research in the classroom: why and how (8 articles)
2. Early Years and Key Stage 1 (12 articles)
3. Children and place (13 articles)
4. Children and the process of learning (16 articles)
5. Children and the environment (coming soon)
6. Geographical concerns (coming soon)

Action Research in the Classroom: what is to be done?
Anthea Millett (2000)
Written by the CEO of the Teaching Training Agency at the time, this article puts together a compelling case for observing how children learn. Though delivered in 1999, the extracts highlight the basic principles of classroom research and its relevance to raising professional esteem.

Conducting research: starting classroom based research in geography education
Patrick Wiegand (2000)
What questions to ask, how to collect answers and how to use the outcomes.

The teacher as researcher
Margaret Mackintosh (2000)
The management, context and exemplification of three forms of action research which improved practice.

The importance of classroom research in primary geography
Simon Catling (2000)
Clear guidelines, criteria and focii for successful classroom research in relation to the curriculum, teaching and learning. Exemplification is given for children's ideas, teachers' strategies and planning with knowledge of children's understanding.

Action Research in the classroom: notes for a seminar
Jean McNiff (2002)
A common sense view of action research.

Conducting Research: good practice turned into research
Simon Catling (2002)
Examples of good practice and the strategies used to identify the elements needed to underpin further good practice.

Teachers engaging with and in research
Leone Burton (2004)
Extracts describing the process of collaboration and the time scale from beginning serious research to producing a useful review.

Using research to inform the development of a Waste Action Project in a Primary School
Sandra McLeod (2004)
Description of involving an inner city school and multicultural local community in a national ESD project. The gardening element still survives in 2011.

Early Years Geography: outdoor play areas in nurseries
Jane Graham (2000)
Initial thoughts and actions on research into outdoor play areas in nurseries

Young children using aerial photographs in a treasure hunt
Beverly Plester (2000)
Analysing young children's mapping ability and spatial awareness, contesting Piagetian beliefs.

Where has all the wonder gone?
Paula Owens (2000)
Part of an examination of the development and progression of children's environmental attitudes.

Young children's perceptions of their immediate environment
Laraine Poulter (2000)
A pilot investigation of reception children's ideas of their immediate environment including teacher annotated children's maps.

Young children using aerial photographs as maps
Beverly Plester (2002)
Further research by a psychologist on infants' understanding of aerial photographs, maps and real space.

Using ICT to support the teaching of 'place' in geography
Colin Storey (2002)
The progress of eleven Year 1 children was followed throughout one academic year for learning the concept of 'place' in geography. Fieldwork, use of digital photography, email and literacy tasks were all employed to achieve the full range of curriculum expectations. This amplifies the exemplifications given in this document.

Multiple perspectives on perception and use of outdoor areas
Paula Owens (2002)
Urban nursery children's perspectives on outdoor areas - adds to previous research by Owen and Graham.

The nursery child and environmental education
Jill Gaunt (2004)
Reflections upon the place of environmental and ESD education for the infant child.

Voices from an inner city school
Paula Owens (2004)
The main aim of this research was to examine how children related to and valued aspects of their environment within the early school years. The purpose of this study was to compare data from an inner city school with data from rural schools because of two identified key differences in the contextual learning environment: location and English as an additional language. This is the full study tabulated in the 2002 article.

Teaching Place: developing early understanding of 'nested hierachies'
Colin Storey (2004)
An exploration of the teaching of place through two theoretical approaches - the methodology connected with the idea of nested hierarchies and the use of symbolic representations of language and learning. The practical study is clearly described followed by a discussion of the implications for the two theoretical approaches. The focus of the study is 'what can young primary age children understand?'.

Environmental values in the early years
Paula Owens (2004)
An investigation into how children's environmental values developed during the early school years within school contexts.

Small People Thinking about Big Spaces: young children's navigational use of aerial photographs
Beverly Plester (2004)
A developmental cognitive psychology view of infants' ability to use aerial photographs in real situations. Continues work begun in 2000 - see above.

Urban children's perceptions of rural villages in England (1)
Greg Walker (2000)
Greg worked with two groups of lower junior pupils from an inner London school to explore their understanding of a rural village. This was investigated using photograph sorting, concept mapping, drawings, word associations and interviews using a questionnaire. Only one of the groups visited the village they were studying.

Children's perception of a place
Paula Richardson (2000)
The main aim of this small scale project is to find out what Year 2 pupils know about, and their perceptions of, firstly the notion of a city and secondly London in particular.

Children's perceptions of Europe
Stephen Scoffham (2000)
Brief research findings in unpublished and published writings.

Researching children's geographies using a multi-method approach
Nichola Ross (2004)
A multi-method approach showing the relationship of children to their locality.

Indian children's images of England
Stephen Scoffham (2004)
Explores what school pupils in southern India know about England. The study is based on interviews with pupils aged between twelve and seventeen years old with whom it was possible to communicate in English.

Aerial photographs and understanding places
Chris Spencer (2004)
The use of aerial photographs with children of all ages.

Exploring children's geographies at KS2
Arthur Kelly (2004)
Original evidence of two aspects of children's emerging geographic learning, namely spatial hierarchy and knowledge of other countries.

Children's understanding of locality
Rachel Bowles (2004)
A longitudinal study of children's geographies.

Comparing children's and adults' understanding of locality
Rachel Bowles (2004)
The evidence for the discrepancy between children's and adults' understanding of the geography of localities.

Student teachers' understanding of locality
John Halocha (2004)
The development of student teachers' understanding of locality in order to complete curriculum requirements.

Urban children's perceptions of rural villages England (2)
Greg Walker (2004)
Evidence about how children come to know and understand distant places.

Children's geographical understanding: the perception of landscape and sites of representation
Ana Francisca de Azevedo (2004)
A geographical investigation into the different meanings primary children attribute to geographical sites.

Children's developing images and representations of the school link environment
Anna Disney (2004)
Evidence of the relationship between particular geographical activities such as mapping and representing places, and the process of developing and changing attitudes through geography and global citizenship.

Graphic Skills

Developing geographical skills of field sketching with Y3/4 pupils: reflection and starting points for classroom research
Fran Martin (2000)
Field sketching with Year 3/4 pupils - reflection and starting points for action research.

Analogical reasoning and map skills
Jennifer Nock (2002)
Evidence to support the way young children relate reality to symbolism and analogy.

Building the image: using Lynch's concepts of imageability to teach about the features of localities
Philip Maudesley (2004)
A study of Y3/4 maps drawn of the locality using three categories - paths, nodes and landmarks.

The skills children use when encoding and decoding spatial information about the environment: a case study
Di Wilmot (2004)
An investigation of graphicacy as a form of communication in a South African primary school. 

Thinking Skills

Geography, questions and thinking skills
Richard West (2000)
A curriculum example of developing enquiry questions with ideas for development and consideration.

Frameworks for thinking specific to geography
Fran Martin (2002)
Used as a basis for discussion on the development of thinking skills by primary children.

Developing thinking skills in the primary classroom
Steve Higgins (2002)
The principles and practical strategies of teaching thinking to raise achievement.

Thinking skills and developing understanding about place
Fran Martin (2002)
How thinking skills can help pupils make sense of their place in the world.

Maps from memory
Caroline Mathews (2002)
Exploring the 'maps from memory' thinking skills strategy.

Philosophical enquiry as an approach to environmental education
Chris Rowley (2004)
Exemplification of philosophical thinking in geographical terms. Includes an extensive bibliography.

Geography, learning and the brain: an example of literature based research
Stephen Scoffham (2004)
How the brain works and its implications for learning primary geography.

ICT Skills

Children's use of CD-Roms and the WWW as sources of information to support learning at KS1 and KS2
Ruth Kershner (2000)
A consideration of the difficulties and processes of classroom research in ICT.

Using ICT to raise achievement in global thinking and understanding
John Halocha (2002)
Looks at the process through which schools develop the application of ICT and the extent to which the use of ICT can develop pupils' and teachers' understanding of the wider world.

What does this picture show?
Tony Pickford (2004)
Description of a small research project which endeavoured to determine what children see in an image with the aid of photographs and QuickTime VR.

Some informal observations on the use of ICT to help accurate weather data collection for supporting locality studies
Alan Rodgers and Angella Streluk (2004)
Using ICT to collect, analyse and disseminate local weather information.

Computer supported collaborative mapmaking and children's talk: developing a research focus
David Owen (2004)
How children represent their local geography using ICT.