Curriculum Planning - new from David Gardner

The GA is publishing a new book in print format in January 2022, written by David Gardner.

David has a wealth of experience in leading on curriculum design, and also in authoring and editing textbooks for the GA and other publishers. He also chaired the GA's Education Group for a number of years.

I've had the pleasure of hearing David speak a number of times over the years. This book will be a valuable addition to a geography department library.

The eBook version (PDF) of the book can already be downloaded from the GA shop using the link here.

This book has been designed to help teachers plan a coherent and sequenced secondary geography curriculum for 11–16-year-olds, with progression and assessment at its heart. 

Divided into two sections, the first part of the book provides the theoretical underpinning of planning a coherent geography curriculum and:

• summarises developments in geography education over the last 30 years and considers the concept of curriculum
• examines curriculum planning models and the proposition of curriculum making
• considers the nature of powerful disciplinary knowledge, and the possibilities of a ‘Future 3’ geography curriculum
• explores the nature of progression in geography and its significance in the curriculum design process
• examines how Ofsted curriculum research determined the 2019 Education Inspection Framework.

The second section provides practical guidance and support and includes case studies from five schools showing how they have approached curriculum design. 

This part of the book takes you through:

• intent – creating a vision, recording your starting point, setting goals and designing your curriculum
• implementation – how do you align curriculum, pedagogy and assessment?
• impact – how do you evaluate the impact of your curriculum on your students and on outcomes in geography in your school?
• what your next steps in developing your coherent 11–16 geography curriculum might be.

FREE downloads – all of the Activities from the book, plus a range of GA articles and selected diagrams and templates are available to download from the password-protected area of the GA website. The information for accessing these materials can be found in the book.

I've purchased a copy and a review will appear here in early 2022 when I've had the chance to properly read and digest it. It's going to be very helpful for a few projects I'm involved in during 2022.