Primary Geography in Australia: Pre-Service Primary Teachers’ Understandings of Weather and Climate

Year 2015, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 199 - 217, 31.08.2015

Rod Lane

Abstract

Recent curriculum introductions and revisions on a global
scale have highlighted the importance of primary teachers’ content knowledge in
geography and the lack of research in this area (Catling, 2014).  This has become a particular focus in
Australia with the introduction of the Australian Curriculum: Geography in 2013
and the requirement for geography to be taught as a discrete subject in primary
schools. The current study focuses on content common to both the Australian
Curriculum: Geography and Science. The study reported in this paper adopts a
mixed methods approach to explore the adequacy of pre-service primary teachers’
accuracy and depth of knowledge about weather and climate.    The results suggest that pre-service
primary teachers hold a range of alternative conceptions about weather and
climate processes and that they lack the depth of knowledge required to
adequately prepare students for their studies in secondary science and
geography.  Implications for classroom
practice and for future research are discussed.

Keywords

Australian curriculum, alternative conceptions, content knowledge, confidence, Conceptual change, geography, weather and climate

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