8. Progressing professional growth and development

8.3 Commit themselves to learning formally and to reflecting critically on their experiences both within the classroom and more widely, through travel, from literature and the arts and through engagement with professional learning communities.

Focus questions:

• What opportunities do you take for reflection on, and critique of, the experience of geography teaching?

Further questions:

• How might you involve yourself in ‘mentoring geography teaching’?
• Should you mentor another geography teacher, how would you go about the process?
• What relationship with the other person would you form and what might be the likely benefits for those involved?

Samples of practice

(a) Backdrop:
In this post-lesson interview, the teacher critically reflects on a lesson which deals with Australia’s aid relationships with five Asian countries. He analyses each part of the lesson and suggests it achieves varying degrees of success. In the lesson he introduces students to the concept of aid organisations e.g. AusAID and explains how the students could use the information he has gathered. The students work in different groups − computer-based and paper-based − to create a poster. The teacher encourages the groups to liaise and negotiate. Overall, the lesson involves a complex division of students into small working groups which is shown in the montage of images attached to this example.To what extent does he demonstrate comprehensive professional knowledge in his reflective analysis of the lesson? 

Click here to view this video sample

AND Sample 8 GEOG 13 and GEOG 14 [6. Image]

Further links and resources

Description of a year 9 geography class and geography teacher:
“Geography in 2013: A Case Study of a Year 9 Geography Class. This year 9 class has a well informed and passionate geography teacher. The kind of teacher that has students on the edge of their seats wondering what exciting things will happen next in their learning journey. The students are enthralled to engage with explanations and answers to phenomena in the real world…This year 9 Geography class of 2013 will remember their geography teacher well and they will miss their geography lessons: lessons that opened their eyes, to what the world is like, and what it could be like…The class of 2013 will contain some students with individual interests in geography. Their interest will be typically robust, long lasting and often wide-ranging…Others will develop situational interest whereby their geography teacher enthuses and stimulates engagement with particular subject content. The class expects to be actively engaged in each learning experience, constantly challenged and well taught by an accomplished geography teacher. The class will be engaged with both the physical world and human environments, studying Australian and global examples through an expansive framework of cascading scales. The class will view the world through the lenses of space and place but they will also be free to examine geographies that people acquire, including their own personal geographies…The students in the class will develop their individual geographical imaginations…

Purnell, K. & Hutchinson, N. (2008) Geography Takes Centre Stage: Australia’s New National Curriculum. Geographical Education 21: 11

See also:
Balderstone, D., (2006) What’s the point of learning geography? In D. Balderstone (Ed.) Secondary geography handbook. Sheffield: Geographical Association

Massey, D., (2006) The geographical mind. In D. Balderstone (Ed.) Secondary geography handbook. Sheffield: Geographical Association

Morgan, J. & Lambert, D., (2005) Geography teaching school subjects 11-19. London: Routledge.

Morrison, Z., (2001) Viewpoints on the place of geography. Geographical Education 14: 42-45

Weeden, P., (2001) Students’ perceptions of geography: Decision making at age 14. Geography 92: 62-73