1.3 Summary

Many teachers and teacher educators have sought to explore and extend conceptual development in school geography. Brooks (2013, p. 86) argues that progress may be undermined by shifts in curricula and examination specifications from a conceptual approach to one that prioritises core knowledge. She argues that how teachers see the relationship between content (vocabulary) and concepts (grammar) will determine how they teach. Like Lambert (2011), Brooks advocates an approach that distinguishes between but integrates world knowledge, key concepts and procedural knowledge. You will have to determine which geographical concepts you wish to focus on, how best to help students to understand these concepts and how to support them as they develop their own conceptual frameworks.