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Getting Started in Your Research
This guidance is relevant for newly-qualified and experienced teachers, subject leaders and head teachers in primary schools. It will also be of interest to teachers of geography in secondary schools and colleges who are considering undertaking a research project.
You may also like to explore the Reports and Reports Archive pages to understand how other teachers have carried out their research.
The teacher as researcher
This flow chart indicates how research can contribute to your role as teacher.
Looking for ideas?
Here are some suggestions for research topics.
1. The nature of the classroom geography curriculum - Teachers’ beliefs and understandings about geography in the curriculum: personal and educational values and aims (e.g. are you determined to improve observational skills? Or draw attention to similarities between communities, despite differences in culture?) What teachers select to teach, both topics and content: attitudes to and knowledge of geography (e.g. how far does the whole school policy determine the topics chosen in order to fit in with citizenship?)
- Why and how teachers organise their geography planning as they do: planning skills (e.g. are you affected by a whole school policy of year group planning on a weekly basis?)The classroom environment teachers provide for pupils (e.g. how much are displays used by the children? Do they follow a continuous QCA scheme and achieve the objective of the scheme?)
2. The teaching of geography in the classroom - Why and how teachers select their teaching approaches (e.g. when is a carousel approach appropriate?)
- Ways in which teachers plan their use of teaching strategies and then carry these out
- How teachers capitalise, or not, on pupil's experience from outside and in school (e.g. how do you know where they play? How far do they roam? What other interests are being developed?)
- The types of questions teachers and pupils ask (e.g. have you ever tape-recorded group discussions when sorting out geographical enquiries into what is to happen to the building site around the corner?)
- The way teachers respond to pupil's questions, including the explanations given (e.g. there is scope here for both audio and video recording – see TTA reports on this approach)
- Approaches to drawing out description and analysis from pupils (e.g. is this just done in geography – or do, e.g. circle and literacy times have a role to play?)
- How teachers use teaching resources (e.g. is an atlas/world map/local A-Z always available to use as graphical dictionaries?)
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3. Pupil's learning of geography through taught educational activities - What pupils do and learn in geography sessions
- What pupils think about geography and aspects of geography
- How pupils relate their in-school experience and learning to out-of-school experience and learning, and vice versa
- How the geography of the school environment affects their learning
- Clarity about pupil’s conceptions and misconceptions
After: Catling, S. (2000) ‘Raising achievement in geography’, Register of Primary Research. Examples of how to approach these topics are to be found in the Reports Archive.
Evaluating your work
Once you have collected your evidence what are the implications? Helen Martin, a Best Practice Research scholar and teacher-adviser in a primary school, describes shared practice in Best Practice in Raising Achievement.
Cyclical reflection in action - observation day of case study.
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