1. Exploring and Expanding the Understanding of Place
Emma Rawlings Smith
(Phil Wood, Simon Renshaw and Matt Potter)
School of Education, University of Leicester

2. Exploring and Expanding the Understanding of Place
Context
Research aims
The research approach
Importance of this research
Project timeframe
Insights from the pilot

3. Context
The new GCSE subject content requires students to think like a geographer (DfE 2014, 3), to do this ‘a student must understand and apply geographic concepts’ (Fouberg, 2013, 65).
Students find some geographic concepts more difficult to come to terms with than others. Difficult concepts include disciplinary threshold concepts, that are so often misunderstood.
Once a student can understand these concepts, think like a geographer and use a conceptual framework, they are able to ‘apply what was learned in new situations’, ‘learn related information more quickly’ (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 17) and make progress (Taylor, 2013).
Place along with space, time and scale are some of geography’s big ideas. Cresswell argues that it is the most important of them all (2015).
In addition, Bruner (1960) has suggested that sophisticated subject conceptions can support extended and more complex learning experiences.

4. Research aims
To work with students and develop an understanding of how students conceptualise 'place’.
To explore how students' understanding of place emerges over time (starting in Year 9)
To use these insights to target curriculum development at a time when teachers are in the process of curriculum-making
To develop a set of tools for developing practice and curriculum building through an iterative, classroom-based approach.

5. The research approach Mixed methods action research
Our project is based on research in the Australian Higher Education sector (Åkerlind et al., 2011) which used the theory of threshold concepts and variation theory as a basis for an action research project into developing understanding by undergraduate students in Physics (focusing on 'measurement uncertainty') and Law (focusing on 'legal reasoning').
We intend to use the theory of threshold concepts and variation theory for exploration into the understanding students have of the concept of 'place' in geography.
At the initial stage of this research and prior to students entering into a GCSE course in geography we want to explore what students understand as being the nature of place, and how their conceptualisations vary.
the views of students are worthy of study (James and Prout, 1997) Threshold concepts are integrative because they expose the interrelatedness of multiple concepts.

6. Importance of this research
There is much debate about what we should teach and how we should do this, but... unless we know more about the children we are teaching (i.e. their context, their conceptions) it can be difficult for students to be fully engaged in the learning process, to think in abstract ways, to think geographically.
Q methodology is based on the idea that any group of people will vary in the way they understand a concept. Although small in scale (350 students in the baseline), will try to uncover similarities and differences in the elements of conceptual understanding, hence the notion of variation.
By understanding these differences, action research can be used to develop teaching approaches which take these variations into account and use them as a basis for activity and resource development.
the views of students are worthy of study (James and Prout, 1997) Threshold concepts are integrative because they expose the interrelatedness of multiple concepts.

7. Project timeframe Year 1 (2015/16)
All year 9 students complete a concept map, Q-sort and explanation
Students to be sampled from Q-sort cluster /those taking geography.
Stimulated recall interviews use the Q-sort data and concept maps with 6-8 students per school groups
All year 9 students complete a concept map of how they understand/characterise the concept of ‘place’.
The results from this exercise will be analysed to understand the ‘elements’ of the concept that have been identified.
which uses results from the concept map supplemented by elements of the concept from the literature.
Two interview groups: Q-sort interviews and general interviews discussing student conceptions of place.
Q-sort interviews: discuss views held by students to understand their choices.

8. The research process 5. Use of insights to feed into next cycle
Insights generated will be used in the following ways:
As part of the curriculum planning process 
To inform teachers of deficits in students’ conceptual understanding of place
To guide the use of learning/lesson study cycles focused on specific research insights
The cycle for research will be completed once every six months over the two years of the first cohort following the new GCSE specification.
1. Q-sort on place leading to purposive sampling
2. Stimulated recall interviewing
3. Completion of concept maps & explanations
4. Curriculum planning & use of lesson/learning study
5. Use of insights to feed into next cycle

9. Which statements are most important in explaining the nature of place?
Q-sort statements
Which statements are most important
in explaining the nature of place?
Do some statements about place mean more to you than others?

10. Traditional Q-sort 34 statement concourse
Which statements are most important in explaining the nature of place?
Diamond 16 Q-sort statement concourse
Do some statements about place mean more to you than others?
Important
Not Important

11. Concept mapping – what is important when investigating place?
Pilot study insights
Concept mapping – what is important when investigating place?

12. Pilot study insights
Concept mapping

13. Pilot study insights Q-sort exercise
Two definable cluster groups with statistically significant Eigen values (7.20 and 5.06) using PQMethod Software
Students in these two cluster groups conceive place very differently
Students from within and outside cluster groups will be interviewed to explore their concept maps and Q-sort responses

14. Pilot study insights Q-sort exercise More important statements:
Places need managing
People, money and resources flow between places
Place is affected by economic activity
Less important statements:
Places follow patterns
Places are virtual
How you feel affects your view of places

15. Pilot study insights Q-sort exercise Variation in importance:
A place has an address
A place is a location on a map
A places are different to each other
Where the above were more important – students gave simple concrete reasoning.
“It is important to have an address so you can find it. Places need managing because if there are no rules there will be chaos.”
Where the above were more important – students gave more complex and abstract reasoning.
“Some statements tell you how places are changing. Maybe by economic activity and the physical processes”

16. Questions for further investigation
Why do some students have more concrete/abstract ideas about place?
What factors shape student conceptions? (ethnicity, SES, gender etc)?
How influential is yesterday’s geography lesson on the concept mapping exercise?
Will abstract notions of place be seen by students as more important as the study progresses?
How useful is Q-methodology and factor analysis (used to quantify subjective opinions and sample students with contrasting opinions)?

17. References and further reading
Åkerlind, G., McKenzie, J. Lupton, M. (2011) A threshold concepts focus to curriculum design: supporting student learning through application of variation theory. Available at:
Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.). (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Cresswell, T. (2015) Place: an introduction. 2nd Edition.
Fouberg, E. (2013) ‘The world is no longer flat to me: student perceptions of threshold concepts in world regional geography’, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 37(1)
Taylor, L. (2013) ‘What do we know about concept formation and making progress in learning geography?’ in Lambert, L. and Jones, M (eds) Debates in Geography Education. Abingdon: Routledge, pp

18. The research website http://aboutplace.weebly.com/the-project.html
@Geography_Emma
@geogphil

19. Exploring and Expanding the Understanding of Place
Emma Rawlings Smith
(Phil Wood, Simon Renshaw and Matt Potter)
School of Education, University of