Making Every Geography Lesson Count (Paperback)

What sets geography apart from other subjects is the value placed on seeing the connections between the different parts of its broad curriculum, on building links between different topics, and on thinking like a geographer. Writing in the practical, engaging style of the award-winning Making Every Lesson Count, Mark Enser has set out to help his fellow practitioners maximise this value by combining the time-honoured wisdom of excellent geography teachers with the most useful evidence from cognitive science.

Making Every Geography Lesson Count is underpinned by six pedagogical principles challenge, explanation, modelling, practice, feedback and questioning that will enable teachers to ensure that students leave their lessons with an improved knowledge of the world, a better understanding of how it works and the geographical skills to support their learning.

Each chapter looks at one of the six principles and begins with twin scenarios which illustrate some of the real challenges faced in geography classrooms. Mark then delves into a discussion on the underpinning theory and offers a range of practical, gimmick-free strategies designed to help teachers overcome these obstacles. Furthermore, each chapter also ends with a case study from a fellow geography teacher who has successfully employed the principle in their own classroom.

Written for new and experienced practitioners alike, this all-encompassing book offers an inspiring alternative to restrictive Ofsted-driven definitions of great teaching and empowers geography teachers to deliver great lessons and celebrate high-quality practice.

Suitable for geography teachers of students aged 11 to18 years.

Mark Enser's Making Every Geography Lesson Count: Six principles to support great geography teaching maps out the key elements of effective geography teaching and shows teachers how to develop their students' conceptual and contextual understanding of the subject over time.

Mark Enser has been teaching geography for over a decade and is currently a head of department at Heathfield Community College. He contributes articles to TES and to the Guardian Teacher Network and often speaks at education conferences. Mark also writes a blog called Teaching It Real and tweets @EnserMark. The rest of the time he spends reading, drinking coffee and running in the hills.