Pre-service geography teachers' confidence in geographical subject matter knowledge and teaching geographical skills

Abstract

This research tracked the confidence of 16 undergraduate and postgraduate pre-service geography teachers as they completed a single semester, senior phase geography curriculum course. The study focused specifically on the pre-service teachers' confidence in geographical subject matter knowledge and their confidence in teaching geographical skills. Data were gathered from participants through two surveys (one at the start of the semester and one at the end of the semester), interviews following video-taped micro-lessons in which participants taught a geographical skill to the class, and focus group discussions. Undergraduate students were more likely to have completed a larger number of geography discipline courses than the postgraduate students – a consequence of the program structure and selection process into the program. Results indicate that undergraduate students were also more likely to report higher levels of confidence in geographical subject matter knowledge and teaching geographical skills. Participation in microteaching activities appears to have had a positive effect on most participants' level of confidence in teaching geographical skills. These results have implications for geography curriculum courses taught in initial teacher education programs, particularly shorter graduate entry programs.

Keywords:

• geography teaching
• teacher confidence
• microteaching
• pre-service training
• Australian curriculum change

Acknowledgements

Our sincere thanks go to the pre-service geography teachers who participated in and contributed to this study. This research was supported by a Griffith University School of Education and Professional Studies’ Research Development Scheme grant. We would like to thank the School for this support. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback on this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note

Notes

1. Pseudonyms are used throughout to protect the anonymity of participants.

Additional information

Funding

Griffith University School of Education and Professional Studies: Research Development Scheme.