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

3. Can we make the world a better place? Yes – 90% No – 5% No answer – 2.5% Dont know – 2.5% Keeping your environment clean – 33% Stop polluting – 14% Stop smoking – 8% Stop violence – no wars – 10% Recycle – 18% Help around the world – ie health, education etc – 12% Stop global warming – 5%

4. Childrens 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. 3. Which country would you most like to learn about and why? 4. Name the city and country you live in and where it is in the world. Reasons for childrens choices broadly seem to fall under two categories: 1.They have some connection with that country e.g. ancestry 2.Because they dont know anything about the country and it seems to be exotic 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. 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

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