Primary geography in Australia : pre-service primary teachers’ understandings of weather and climate

Recent curriculum introductions and revisions on a global scale have highlighted the importance of primary teachers’ content knowledge in geography and the lack of research in this area (Catling, 2014). This has become a particular focus in Australia with the introduction of the Australian Curriculum: Geography in 2013 and the requirement for geography to be taught as a discrete subject in primary schools. The current study focuses on content common to both the Australian Curriculum: Geography and Science. The study reported in this paper adopts a mixed methods approach to explore the adequacy of pre-service primary teachers’ accuracy and depth of knowledge about weather and climate. The results suggest that pre-service primary teachers hold a range of alternative conceptions about weather and climate processes and that they lack the depth of knowledge required to adequately prepare students for their studies in secondary science and geography. Implications for classroom practice and for future research are discussed.19 page(s