Explicit teaching puts the teacher as the expert in the classroom. It is teacher-led and includes exposition, explanation, modelling, demonstration and instruction. It lies at the heart of good teaching as the teacher fully and clearly explains geographical ideas and concepts to students.

Explicit teaching often takes place with a whole class but it could take place with a small group. It is more than ‘exposition’; it involves interaction with students as the teacher continually checks for understanding via interventions and questions.

This teaching approach has been shown to be more effective for novice learners, i.e. those who have little background knowledge or experience within a particular geography topic. Ofsted (2019) has noted that as learners become more expert, enquiry-based approaches work better.

The areas of explicit teaching in geography that are covered in this section are: