The continuing mismatch between students’ undergraduate experiences and the teaching demands of the geography classroom: Experience of pre‐service secondary geography teachers

Abstract

Reforms to the structure of the education system of England and Wales in recent years, notably the introduction of a National Curriculum following the Education Reform Act of 1988, have tended to reinforce the subject‐based arrangements of the school curriculum. Moves to establish initial teacher training in a competence‐based model have also emphasised the importance of good ‘subject knowledge’ as a requirement of effective teachers. Increasingly influential research in school improvement and effectiveness has also pointed to the significance of sound academic knowledge and goals as a condition for school, and departmental, effectiveness and improvement. It follows, therefore, that the subject knowledge of beginning teachers is of special interest to those involved in the initial training of teachers. This is particularly the case in a system such as exists in the UK where the current mode of training of secondary teachers is via the Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), a system which assumes competence in ‘subject knowledge’ (to a greater or lesser extent). This paper reports a small‐scale study designed to investigate the nature of this concern from a sample of geography PGCE students (1994–5) at the University of London Institute of Education (ULIE). In addition to elucidating the nature of subject knowledge which PGCE recruits bring to their training, it seeks to identify some of the implications of perceived subject knowledge ‘gaps’ or, in the authors’ terms, defects in students’ own feelings of competence’.

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