What makes a geography lesson 'good'?

Headnote

This article previews Margaret Roberts' new article 'What makes a good Geography lesson?' This can be found on the Making Geography Happen pages of the GA website.

Margaret Roberts asked this question at the GA's 2011 Annual Conference in Guildford. It is a question that all geography teachers can answer in some way. As a result we probably don't worry too much: it's pretty obvious isn't it? The lecture followed on from Margaret Roberts' article 'Where's the geography? Reflections on being an external examiner' published in Teaching Geography, Autumn 201 0. Margaret used her experiences observing PGCE students to share her concerns that more attention is given to the general aspects of teaching than the geography being taught. How the students are managed, the pace of the lesson, seemed of greater importance than the development of geographical understanding within the lesson. Perhaps it wasn't that obvious after all. What does make a geography lesson good? Margaret has now written an article based on this lecture, it makes challenging reading to teachers at any stage of the ir career.

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