Geographical Association

PowerPoint presentations and papers from the 2007 event can be accessed below.

Jane Ferretti, University of Sheffield
Jane talked about the reasons why Year 12 students had chosen to study A-level geography compared to the reasons their teachers thought had affected their choice.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (99k)

Roger Firth and Mary Biddulph, University of Nottingham
Roger and Mary spoke about their initial work with the Young People's Geographies Project, a collaborative project involving academic geographers, eight geography teachers, geography teacher educators and pupils.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (1.6M)

Nick Hopwood, University of Oxford
Nick presented some of the data from his research into pupils' understanding of geography, focusing on what pupils found controversial and how they handled controversial issues in the classroom.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (282k)
Download: Handout (156k)
Download: Accompanying Notes (95k)

Download more of Nick's work from his website.

Rachel Lofthouse, University of Newcastle
Rachel presented examples from an early stage of a research project in which she is exploring the value of PGCE students videoing their lessons and using these as a basis for reflection and learning.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (111k)

Di Swift, The Geographical Association
Di gave us a report on the implementation of the Action Plan for Geography and its approach to 'curriculum making'.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (2M)

Andrea Tapsfield, ex HMI
Andrea reflected on changes to the inspection process and to Initial Teacher Education geography courses which had taken place during her years as an Inspector.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (150k)

Sheila King, University of London Institute of Education
Sheila gave an overview of developments in ITE with a focus on how ULIE had adapted the course to enable PGCE students to gain Masters Credits for their work during the course.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (233k)

Debbie Moss, Keele University
Debbie provided information about the procedures used at Keele University for selecting PGCE students. The procedures included a written task, a presentation, an interview and micro-teaching in a local school.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (96k)
Download: PowerPoint Presentation (577k)

John Cook, University of London Institute of Education
John reported findings from a cross phase (KS2-KS3) project on pupil perceptions of geography which involved surveys and interviews with Year 6 and Year 7 pupils about geography and their knowledge of places.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (362k)

David Lambert, The Geographical Association
David presented information about the present roles of the Geographical Association and raised questions about its changing roles and functions.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (345k)
Download: Paper (49k)

Mark Jones, University of the West of England
Mark reported on how his PGCE students had made plasticine models and animated them to show complex landforms and processes. The activity had encouraged discussion which promoted deeper understanding of processes.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (523k)

Charles Rawding, Edge Hill University
Charles discussed the blurring of distinctions between tourism and leisure activities. He illustrated his presentation with case studies of literary and television tourism.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (1.5M)
Download: Accompanying Notes (30k)

Graham Butt, University of Birmingham
Graham spoke about the importance of quality research in geographical education. If we want our research to inform policy then it would be an advantage to collaborate, decide on priorities and to develop an action plan.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (1.3M)

Fran Martin, The University of Exeter
Fran spoke about the possible negative effects of schools in the UK linking with places in the South and about ways in which more positive mutual relationships could develop.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (2.1M)

David Mitchell, GA and University of London Institute of Education
David showed how it was easy to access worthwhile 'ready to use' GIS online. He also demonstrated the continuing relevance to a changing geography of a 'low-tech' approach with process models of sand and water.

See the Spatially Speaking Project and the IOE Earth Science Centre for more ideas.

David Lambert, The Geographical Association
In a special session held to discuss research in geographical education, David Lambert discussed research priorities. He identified characteristics of the current context and discussed issues that could be the focus of the type of research that would interest and influence policy makers.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (330k)

Sue Bermingham, Manchester Metropolitan University and John Lyon, the Geographical Association
Sue and John discussed how PGCE students could improve their knowledge and understanding of the localities in which their placement schools were situated, and how they might use this information to promote pupils' interest in their local areas.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (3M)

Melanie Norman, University of Brighton
Mel reported on her research, based on semi-structured interviews, into how the KS3 curriculum was constructed in three contrasting schools. The research raised issues about both geographical content and pedagogy.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (728k)

Maggie Smith, the Open University and Di Swift, the Geographical Association
Maggie and Di showed extracts of this online resource and discussed how it might be used with PGCE students.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (2.7M)

Margaret Roberts, the Geographical Association
Margaret Roberts presented data from her research into the representation of Southern Italy in KS3 textbooks. She examined photographs, text and activities and compared them with those in an atlas for Italian primary schools.

Download: PowerPoint Presentation (57k)