Where powerful knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge intersect: the case of knowledge and beliefs for teaching school geography through inquiry

Figures & data

Table 1. Maude’s (2015) Five-part typology of powerful geographical knowledge (PGK).

PGK Type	Characteristics
Type 1 PGK provides students with “new ways of thinking about the world” (p. 18)	Refers to geography’s key concepts of place, space, environment and interconnection.
Type 2 PGK provides students with “powerful ways of analysing, explaining and understanding” (p. 20)	Enables students to analyse, explain and generalise i.e. understand various phenomena and apply to different contexts and/or futures.
Type 3 PGK gives students “power over their own knowledge” (p. 22)	Provides skills to find and make sense of information and evaluate knowledge claims.
Type 4 PGK “enables young people to follow and participate in… local, national and global issues” (p. 23)	Enables students to examine issues significant to society and the world.
Type 5 PGK is “Knowledge of the World” (p.23)	Refers to learning about places beyond the local or beyond students’ own experiences.

Table 2. Profile of teacher respondents (N = 44).

Profile of teachers		Number of teachers, n (%)
School Type	Government	15 (34%)
	Catholic	10 (23%)
	Independent	19 (43%)
Experience Teaching Geography	Less than 2 years	5 (11%)
	3 to 5 years	11 (25%)
	6 to 8 years	2 (5%)
	More than 8 years	26 (59%)
Highest level of study in geography (participants could select more than one option)	Undergraduate, as an academic subject	12 (27%)
	Undergraduate, as part of teacher education	4 (9%)
	Graduate, as an academic subject	15 (34%)
	Graduate, as part of teacher education	31 (71%)
	Total who studied geography as part of teacher education	35 (80%)
	Total who studied geography as an academic subject at university	27 (61%)

Table 3. Results from quantitative survey questions.

Teacher knowledge
Question	N	Yes	Maybe	No
Do you think of geography as a distinct field of study?	44	37 (84%)	4 (9%)	3 (7%)
	N	Extremely	Moderately	Slightly	Not at all
How familiar are you with teaching geography through inquiry?	44	21 (48%)	14 (32%)	8 (18%)	1 (2%)
Teacher beliefs
Question	N	Extremely	Moderately	Slightly	Not at all
How important are inquiry processes in the study of geography?	44	29 (66%)	13 (30%)	1 (2%)	1 (2%)
How important is inquiry in students’ learning of geography in school?	44	24 (55%)	16 (36%)	3 (7%)	1 (2%)
How far has the use of inquiry helped your students in their learning of geography?*	44	14 (32%)	26 (59%)	2 (5%)	2 (5%)
Teacher practice
Question	N	Always	Often	Sometimes and regularly	Sometimes but infrequently	Rarely
In a typical school year, how often do you teach geography through inquiry?	44	3 (7%)	21 (48%)	8 (18%)	10 (23%)	2 (5%)

This table reports n (% rounded to nearest whole) for each response.

* The percentages in this row do not add up to 100% because of rounding.

Table 4. Correlation between teacher knowledge, beliefs and practice (N = 44).

	Years of teaching experience	Familiarity with inquiry	Inquiry has helped students’ learning	Frequency of inquiry use
Familiarity with inquiry	0.62 (p < 0.001)
Inquiry has helped students’ learning	0.04 (p = 0.777)	0.47 (p = 0.001)
Frequency of inquiry use	0.35 (p = 0.021)	0.65 (p < 0.001)	0.45 (p = 0.002)
Inquiry processes are important for geography	0.10 (p = 0.515)	0.20 (p = 0.187)	0.47 (p = 0.001)	0.30 (p = 0.048)
Inquiry is important for students’ learning	0.27 (p = 0.080)	0.22 (p = 0.148)	0.70 (p < 0.001)	0.36 (p = 0.017)

* Reporting Spearman correlation coefficient (p-value in brackets); coefficients in bold are statistically significant (p=/< 0.001).

Maude, A. (2015). What is powerful knowledge and can it be found in the Australian geography curriculum? Geographical Education, 28, 18–26.

 Google Scholar