‘To make a geography lesson good, it is the teaching and learning of geography which is crucial’.

Margaret Roberts, 2011

A geography teacher educator has a responsibility to prepare new teachers to be geography subject specialist teachers. They should:

• know about the place of subject knowledge in today’s geography curriculum
• understand the distinctions between disciplinary, procedural and substantive knowledge in geography
• be aware of current curriculum thinking in geography
• know what a ‘good’ geography lesson looks like
• recognise the subject knowledge expectations for new geography teachers.

In their role as a teacher trainer or mentor they should be able to work with new teachers to:

• improve and develop their subject knowledge (disciplinary, procedural and substantive)
• teach them pedagogic content knowledge (PCK)
• help them to understand and use reading and research in a critical way to develop their geography teaching
• identify strengths and weaknesses in their geography teaching and guide them on how to make the most of their subject knowledge strengths and improve where necessary
• help them teach lessons which progress learners’ geographical knowledge and encourage them to ‘think geographically’
• help them recognise and overcome students’ misconceptions in geography
• involve them in the geography community and seek ways to extend their subject knowledge.

Read Rawlings Smith, E. and Kitchen, R. (2025) ‘Making the case for high-quality, subject-specific professional learning’, Teaching Geography, Summer.

Different aspects of subject knowledge for teacher educators to consider are covered in these pages: