The article offers a critique of the Knowledge and Understanding sub-strand of the revised Australian Curriculum: Geography for Years F-6, due to be implemented in Australian schools in 2024. As a foundation for this critique, the article first discusses what should be the aims of geography in primary schools, in order to provide some criteria for…

The article outlines ways that teachers could use the content in Biomes and Food Security unit in the Australian curriculum, and its state and territory versions, to encourage their students to engage with higher order thinking. It first briefly discusses how to describe and classify higher-order thinking and argues that concepts are central to…

New technologies are changing the ways that children navigate, find places, make and use maps, and explore the world. This is the geospatial revolution. Children live in a world of rapid technological innovation bringing new opportunities for cognitive development in school geography. Geography learning is an important component of primary school…

The concept of powerful knowledge was introduced into educational debates nearly a decade ago by Michael Young, a British sociologist of education. Young describes powerful knowledge as knowledge that enables young people to go beyond the limits of their own experience; better explain and understand the world; think about alternative futures and…

"Sustainability" is one of the seven major concepts in the geography curriculum. It is also one of the three cross-curriculum priorities in the Australian curriculum, together with Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. This paper describes how the concept is explained…