‘A high quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people…’ (DfE 2013)

Curiosity is driven by a need to know more and understand more. The world is a complex, interconnected and at times mysterious array of places, spaces and environments. Through this course, Jon explores the power of asking and investigating the right questions to build, connect and remember knowledge incrementally. He considers how to plan and deliver geographical learning through enquiry, while making use of a range of practical tasks to unlock knowledge around geographical features, processes and interactions between the physical and human world.

Supporting research / references

Cannell, J. GA blog: Questioning, questioning

Roberts, M. (2023), Geography Through Enquiry second edition. Although aimed at secondary schools the theoretical grounding and many of the practical tasks can be easily adapted for primary provision

Murdoch, K., ‘The urge to enquire: curiosity in the classroom’ Primary Geography (Autumn 2014). Kath Murdoch explores how to model and inspire pupils to ask more, and deeper, questions. Go to her website and follow the link to past newsletters to discover more.

Whitehouse, S. and Vickers-Hulse, K., ‘Generating enquiry skills’, Primary Geography (Summer 2016). In this article, Sarah and Karan consider how to build an enquiry.

The diagram from Julia Tanner in Primary Geography (Spring 2021) on the enquiry cycle. 

Key learning aims

• To understand the procedure of geographical enquiry, how to plan for different elements of it and the importance of supporting pupils to master the process. 
• To become more familiar with key geographical concepts and how to develop these through enquiry.
• To learn how to assess a unit of enquiry.

Expected impact on teachers

• Teachers are confident to plan and deliver geographical units of enquiry which both stimulate and build on pupils’ prior knowledge to deepen their understanding.

Expected impact on pupil outcomes

• To empower pupils to investigate geographical ideas, data and sources of information through employing enquiry skills, including questioning, data collection, critical analyse and effective communication of their findings.
• To stimulate a genuine need to know which stimulates curiosity, enables engagement and builds pupils’ disciplinary and substantive knowledge.

Course programme

• Session 1 – What is enquiry based learning?
• Session 2 – What do we want pupils to know and understand?
• Session 3 – How do we plan for ‘knowing more, understanding more and remembering more’?

This course will run as a full day online, 9.30 – 15.30, with breaks for lunch and refreshments.

Meet your course lead