'Geography through Enquiry' 2nd Edition - now available to purchase and pre-order

The GA President in 2008, fifteen years ago, was Margaret Roberts

The new updated edition of her classic 'Geography through Enquiry' is now available for immediate download as an eBook in PDF format, or as a pre-ordered actual book which will be out in a month or so according to the GA website.

Here's the shop link from the GA website.

This second edition of Margaret Roberts’ key text focuses on what learning geography through enquiry can mean in the secondary school classroom. It identifies four key aspects of classroom enquiry: a questioning approach to geographical knowledge; critical study of the evidence on which geographical knowledge is based; the development of geographical understanding; and reflection on learning.

In addition to updating information and listing new references, this new edition includes recent examples of classroom practice, contributed by a range of practising teachers and educators from around the world. The book gives attention to challenges faced by teachers in dealing, for example, with stereotypical representations, students’ misunderstandings, disinformation and eco-anxieties. It also includes four new chapters: the contribution of students’ knowledge to enquiry-based learning; investigating geographical futures; geographical enquiry in a digital world; and reflecting on learning.

This book is designed to support secondary school geography teachers at all stages of their professional development. It will also be of interest to teachers wanting to carry out research into pedagogic practices in the geography classroom, to teacher educators and to policy makers.

I have my copy and started to read through it earlier. I will post a review here once I've had a proper read.

I was pleased to see that my own small contribution to its creation was acknowledged at the start. I was one of the teachers and other geography colleagues who were connected by Margaret to share our thoughts on the original edition and what aspects of it were the most important to focus on for the 2nd edition. Matt Podbury, Richard Allaway and Ellena Mart were amongs other familiar names who shared ideas for digital resources in particular as well as some of the new challenges, including AI.

GA Presidency Month 4: December 2021

December saw a range of activity in the first part of the month which came at the end of a long and varied term which was particularly tiring and challenging, with growing COVID cases in school, and waiting to find out more about the new variant and its potential implications for us, as cases rose and the threat of another lockdown began to loom the week before Christmas.

December 1st was the first of another month of activity supporting GA branches.The GA Birmingham Branch has continued with a programme of excellent speakers, including Ben Hennig.

Thanks to those teachers who came along, and to Bob for sending a recording of the session, which I think went very well.

The 2nd of the month saw the latest of our Parents' Evenings via Parent Cloud. These may well become one of the legacies of the pandemic, with the end to face to face appointments, or perhaps hybrid events.

My booster jab was given on the 3rd. Many people in the world are yet to receive their first vaccine, although impressively over 800 million Indians have received their first dose. It turns out this is going to very important with the Omicron variant.

ERASMUS projects have continued and we have negotiated extensions on the project as they have been majorly affected by the pandemic which has impacted on our chances to work with the teachers who are part of the project. They have been delayed and subject to alteration.

Zaragoza in Spain is a city that I have never been to (yet) and my trip there had to be cancelled last weekend following the emergence of the Omicron variant and changes to travel arrangements.

I also had to cancel a proposed trip to Romania in the New Year, and an event in London as well due to people having to isolate.

I also filled in my CPD log for my Chartered Geographer status this week. I have been a Chartered Geographer since April 2007, and the GA Conference will mark my 15th anniversary as a CGeog (Teacher).

To find out more about this opportunity to get accreditation for your CPD and other efforts check out the Chartered Geographers section of the RGS website.

I had a GIS resource to work on and spent some time on that as well.

I also put out the call for papers for the session that I have had accepted at the 100th IGU in Paris. If you would like to be part of the session you need to submit your abstract by January 11th.  Let me know if you would like further information.

I also had to get copy for the Spring 2022 issue of my Webwatch column for GA Magazine's Spring 2022 issue finished. The magazine is getting a face lift in 2022 with a new format which means the full version of Webwatch will now be available to download with a smaller version in the magazine.

With the GA now passing 10 000 plus members (as you may have read in a piece I wrote for the GA website)

Christmas was a bit of a pause for most people.

I continued to potter on projects during the school holidays:

- The first day of the holidays I had a meeting with Alan Kinder.

- Wrote an article on the KS2 work I am doing at school. This will appear in 'Primary Geography'.

- Worked on ERASMUS project outcomes for GI Pedagogy and also D3 - check out the course we have created here.

- I also bought and started reading David Gardner's new book, which is out now as an eBook - it's excellent, and comes with an accompanying GeogPod broadcast which I listened to this week as well.

- I worked on finishing a new session called 'Click and Collect' to present at a number of GA Branches this coming year. It links with another resource I'm working on, which also connects with the idea of Supply Chains. That will all emerge in 2022, as part of my 'Curriculum Vitae'

Omicron cases continued to rise as we entered the final few weeks of 2021 and many of the teachers I follow on Twitter tested positive.

Here are the Twitter stats for the month as usual.

SLN Publication

Does anyone remember this from around 2008? 

I have a copy and came across it recently when checking through my archive for relevant documents to add to this blog.

Please don't try and order a copy using the order form... it's very unlikely to result in one arriving...

Anyone else have a copy, or have a hand in creating it?

Geog Book from SLN Flyer from 2008 from GeoBlogs

'Why Study Geography?' - coming soon...

Hijacking the blog today for a bit of a sales pitch....

Geography is the big-picture subject for our times. It encompasses subjects ranging from the microscopic – how soils form, and how those soils can be protected and managed well to grow food, for example – through to things as large-scale as the future trajectory of megacities and the threat of ever more warming of the planet. Alan Parkinson’s guide clearly and carefully explains why geography is worthy of study, at GCSE, at A level and at university. It is bang up to date. Students, their teachers and parents are all likely to find it essential reading.

Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford

Just ahead of lockdown, I met with Richard and Sam from the London Publishing Partnership about writing a book in a series explaining why students should teach different curriculum subjects. The History book is already published, and others are on the way. The lockdown gave me the time and the inclination to meet a quite tight deadline, and after several drafts, hundreds of edits and tweaks and rewriting, the book is now about to go to print, and is set for publication in October.

The book explores why the study of geography is so important. It looks at how the subject developed, links between school and academic geography, how to apply to study geography at university, the different types of courses, how to make the most of your time at university, what careers geography can lead you into and with case studies of individuals who studied geography and who went on to do interesting things with it, and others who came into a geographical field later. There are also suggestions for how you can develop your geographical thinking, and make the most of your powerful geographical knowledge. Thanks to those people who kindly contributed to the creation of this book, which helped me shape my own thoughts, and has also led to me starting to write another related book to connect with my planned GA Presidential theme for 2021-22.

I think this book would be helpful for several different groups of people:

- for teachers of Geography, who are keen to find out about how the subject developed, and what contemporary geography courses look like
- for parents of students who have shown an interest in studying geography at HE or undergraduate level
- for those staff whose role includes preparing students for UCAS choices and university applications, or writing EPQs and related activities to support a move into academic study
- for those staff who are involved in helping with careers options for those who may want to secure a job or internship or apprenticeship instead of
- for those who simply want a few copies of a book around the place to direct those who they know might go on to study Geography at university to read to find out more...
- as a gift for Y13s who do particularly well, and head off to university (hopefully to study geography)

Please let your UCAS / Careers teachers at school know about the book - great for Options evening as well to have around to show the value of the subject to so many careers.

It would be great to get this book into as many schools as possible. Although the book is UK-focussed, it would also be useful to those in the USA and other countries, including in International Schools and those that follow UK-based exam specifications.

Go HERE to pre-order your copy and if you think you might want a small (or large) order o multiple copies then let me know and I'll put you in touch with the publishers to see whether we can arrange a discount.

And why the beans on the front cover? If you get a copy you'll find out why :)

New in the library

Oxfam in Exeter had this yesterday so I had to purchase it.

A bit bulky for the luggage and return trip home, but had to get it as it features essays from at least nine former GA Presidents, all of them experts in the area they are writing about.

It also has an essay from Joy Tivy, Professor of Biogeography at Glasgow University.