While Shulman argues that an important component of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is teachers' understanding of the alternative conceptions commonly held by students, relatively little is known about what students believe about many topics in the school curriculum. This paper focuses on a content area typically featured in Geography…

This empirical study investigates the environmental awareness of school children in Bavaria and Asturias. The analysis was based on a data-set (Bavaria, 900 students; Asturias, 182 students) that was collected in spring 2007. Students aged between 14 and 15 years responded to a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The theoretical concept follows the…

Environmental education in Albania has been given a boost recently, with increasing emphasis being placed on it by the country's educational system. At pre-school and elementary education levels, the "Head Start project" is significant, while the introduction of a separate subject entitled "Knowledge of the environment" intended for the 9th and…

Considerable evidence now exists of the problem of boys' underachievement in a wide range of academic subjects, including geography. This paper offers examples of, and suggests tentative solutions to, problems of underachievement based on the findings generated by a research project conducted in an English secondary school. In so doing it raises…

This paper explores both substantive and methodological issues relating to research investigating Year 9 (age 13-14) pupils' conceptions of geography in one English comprehensive school. Posters, a questionnaire and interviews were used to generate a variety of forms of data. Findings indicated that the pupils saw geography as about the world,…