John Cook Institute of Education

1. Older Primary Pupils' Perceptions of Geography-   Findings from a cross phase PGCE project at  the IoE 2006/07 John Cook Institute of Education

2. Yes – 54% No – 11% Not Sure – 15% Sometimes – 20% Is Geography Fun? What Do You Learn In Geography? Its about the world Mountains Countries and Cities Greece River Nile 43% knew about Geography – wider context 20% didn’t know what Geography was

3. Don’t know – 2.5% Can we make the world a better place? Yes – 90% No answer – 2.5% No – 5% Help around the world – ie health, education etc – 12% Stop smoking – 8% Recycle – 18% Stop polluting – 14% Keeping your environment clean – 33% Stop global warming – 5% Stop violence – no wars – 10%

4. Children’s views of the future Hopes • no war/more peace • less pollution/clean air • no poverty/no famine • friendly community and cooperation between countries. Fears • War/nuclear war/terrorists • Robots and machines will dominate • The world will become more polluted • Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunami, meteorites.

5. ¼ mentioned the USA, which may reflect the Americanisation of our culture. • 1/6 Mentioned developed Asian countries (i.e. China) • Only 1 European country was mentioned 3. Which country would you most like to learn about and why? • Reasons for children’s choices broadly seem to fall under two categories: • They have some connection with that country e.g. ancestry • Because they don’t know anything about the country and it seems to be exotic 4. Name the city and country you live in and where it is in the world. Most were capable of naming the city and country they were from and they were generally in the right hierarchy. Some mentioned the Northern hemisphere.

6. In a study by Patrick Wiegand in 1992- Year 6 Children were able to name on average 15 countries.Our study showed an increase -average was 20