Course Outline
EDU740 Teaching Senior Secondary Geography
Course Coordinator:Craig Johnston (cjohnston1@usc.edu.au) School:School of Education and Tertiary Access
2026Trimester 2
UniSC Sunshine CoastUniSC Moreton Bay |
Blended learning | Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online. |
Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
What is this course about?
Description
The course builds your capacity to apply and explain senior secondary geography content and curriculum in Queensland. You will design and justify lesson plans and learning sequences that engage diverse learners based on your reflections on your critical reflections on current trends in geography education. In addition, you will analyse and evaluate a range of pedagogy, assessment and reporting strategies that support senior students, including developing strategies for literacy, numeracy, ICT, spatial technologies and fieldwork in senior geography.
How will this course be delivered?
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Blended learning | |||
| Learning materials – You are required to engage and interact with asynchronous materials and activities accessed through Canvas modules, course readings and required texts. | 2hrs | Week 1 | 9 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – A face to face tutorial which involves on-campus activities using technology to engage with and apply course content and outcomes. | 2hrs | Week 1 | 10 times |
Course Topics
- Senior Geography curriculum and the role of inquiry
- Curriculum design and teacher beliefs
- Geography discipline-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)
- Teaching and learning strategies that engage senior geography students
- Diagnostic, formative, summative assessment and reporting
- Literacy, numeracy, ICT and 21st-century skills in Geography
- Marking, feedback and moderation in senior Geography
- Interpreting student assessment data to modify teaching
What level is this course?
700 Level (Specialised)
What is the unit value of this course?
12 units
How does this course contribute to my learning?
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Mapping Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | Professional Standard Mapping * Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership | |
| 1 | Apply and explain geography content, inquiry and Senior Secondary Geography curriculum. |
Knowledgeable Creative and critical thinker |
2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2 |
| 2 | Apply and explain a range of teaching and learning strategies, including ICT, that provide achievable challenges and engage the diversity of students in senior geography. |
Knowledgeable Creative and critical thinker |
2.2, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.5 |
| 3 | Plan, create, evaluate and justify the principles of assessment, moderation, feedback and reporting that measure senior students' progress towards achievement standards in senior Geography. |
Creative and critical thinker Empowered Engaged |
2.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 |
| 4 | Explain, evaluate and justify planning, resourcing, teaching strategies, ICT, literacy, numeracy and 21-century skills developed through senior geography curriculum including fieldwork. |
Creative and critical thinker Ethical Engaged |
2.1, 2.2, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 |
* Competencies by Professional Body
| CODE | COMPETENCY |
| Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership | |
| 2.1 | Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area |
| 2.2 | Content selection and organisation: Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence. |
| 2.3 | Curriculum, assessment and reporting: Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans. |
| 2.5 | Literacy and numeracy strategies: Know and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas. |
| 2.6 | Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students. |
| 3.1 | Establish challenging learning goals: Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics. |
| 3.2 | Plan, structure and sequence learning programs: Plan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies. |
| 3.3 | Use teaching strategies: Include a range of teaching strategies. |
| 3.4 | Select and use resources: Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning. |
| 4.1 | Support student participation: Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities. |
| 4.2 | Manage classroom activities: Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions |
| 4.5 | Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically: Demonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching. |
| 5.1 | Assess student learning: Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning. |
| 5.2 | Provide feedback to students on their learning: Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning |
| 5.3 | Make consistent and comparable judgements: Demonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning. |
| 5.4 | Interpret student data: Demonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice. |
| 5.5 | Report on student achievement: Demonstrate understanding of a range of strategies for reporting to students and parents/ carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement |
Am I eligible to enrol in this course?
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Pre-requisites
Enrolled in Program ED706 and a Geography Teaching aor ED508 or ED705rea
Co-requisites
Not applicable
Anti-requisites
Not applicable
Specific assumed prior knowledge and skills (where applicable)
It is expected that students engaging in this course have undertaken tertiary geography content courses that will be drawn upon to complete this course.
Microcredential Information
Not applicable
How am I going to be assessed?
Grading Scale
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Details of early feedback on progress
Students will engage with task 1 in small groups to moderate the assessment they identify, and feedback will be provided on Task 1 during these tutorials in preparation for the individual responses submitted in week 5.
Assessment tasks
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| All | 1 | Written Piece | Individual | 40% | 2200 words |
Week 5 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 2 | Oral and Written Piece | Individual | 15% | Written - Powerpoint slides Presentation - 8 Minutes in the tutorial using submitted Powerpoint slides |
Refer to Format | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check and in class |
| All | 3 | Portfolio | Individual | 45% | 2200 words |
Week 10 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All - Assessment Task 1:Planning, assessment and teacher beliefs | |||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to explore how teacher beliefs and marking student assessment influence planning in senior secondary geography. |
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| Product: | Written Piece | ||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||
| Format: | Identify a group you can work with to discuss the moderation of at least two student pieces of work. The whole group should identify a sample task and student responses for a summative investigation - either fieldwork or data report - to participate in the tutorial activities in weeks 2-4. You will explore: • senior assessment practices: marking, moderation and feedback and how these can influence lesson sequence planning in senior geography • how teacher beliefs about teaching impact lesson sequence planning in senior geography Prepare an individual reflection (2200 words) that explains, evaluates and justifies how your planning for the next topic in senior geography will be influenced by: a) the marking, moderation, feedback and assessment of the summative assessment task b) your beliefs about teaching geography |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Information literacy |
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| All - Assessment Task 2:Geographical skills content and pedagogical knowledge | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to identify and apply senior geography content, curriculum and teaching strategies to a professional audience. |
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| Product: | Oral and Written Piece | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Submit: Written: Monday 8 am week 7 Presentation: in tutorial week 7-8 As a senior geography teacher, you will discuss with your tutor the allocation of one complex geographical analysis skill that students use in senior Geography and explain how the teacher could develop this skill across the two-year study program with an emphasis on the senior internal assessments. Prepare and present an 8-minute PowerPoint presentation for geography teachers. Explain the geographical skill and the range of teaching strategies and resources you could use to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities. Use a specific school site of your choice as context for this task. The PowerPoint slides will form the written submission for this task. You should reference course materials, curriculum documents and academic literature throughout the slides, including a reference list as the final slide. You will share these slides with the class at the end of the task. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Applying technologies |
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| All - Assessment Task 3:Portfolio: Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in senior geography | |||||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to plan, create, evaluate and justify curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in Senior Secondary Geography. |
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| Product: | Portfolio | ||||||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Part 1: A content update based on syllabus and exam paper review (600 words) Review the current syllabus document and most recent exam paper to identify gaps in your own knowledge and understanding of the unit 4 external exam content. Identify one aspect that you find challenging or new and research this topic to develop your own knowledge base and identify three sources that could be used with secondary geography students. Note this content should be the focus of your sequence in Part 2. Part 2: Develop a lesson sequence which includes a) An outline of a four-lesson learning sequence, and b) A detailed lesson plan for one lesson in the sequence.(800 words) The lesson sequence and plan should illustrate your ability to set learning goals, organise classroom activities, use resources and teaching strategies to provide achievable challenges for the variety of senior secondary students. Part 3: Explanation, Evaluation and Justification (800 words) Explain, evaluate and justify using academic literature and curriculum documents how lesson sequence you have created: • applies learning goals, geographical inquiry, a range of teaching strategies and pedagogy that engage students in achievable challenges. • applies literacy, numeracy and ICT strategies and uses a range of resources relevant for students, the curriculum and the assessment task for this unit and topic. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation, Information literacy |
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Directed study hours
A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
What resources do I need to undertake this course?
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
Prescribed text(s) or course reader
You need regular access to the resource(s) below. Many texts are available as ebooks through the Library at no additional cost.
| Required? | Author | Year | Title | Edition | Publisher |
| Required | Malcolm McInerney,Susan Caldis,Stephen Cranby,John Butler,Alaric Maude,Susanne Jones,Michael Patrick Law,Rebecca Nicholas | 2021 | Teaching Secondary Geography | n/a | Cambridge University Press |
| Recommended | Bill Dodd,Mick Law,Iain Meyer,Phil O'Brien | 2019 | Jacaranda Senior Geography 2 for Queensland Units 3&4 3E EBookPLUS + Print | 3 | Jacaranda |
| Recommended | Bill Dodd,Mick Law,Iain Meyer,Phil O'Brien | 2018 | Jacaranda Senior Geography 1 for Queensland Units 1&2 3E EBookPLUS + Print | 3 | Jacaranda |
Specific requirements
It is expected that you will require Internet access and a personal computer. Recommendations from information and technology services are available via the Student Portal if you search for computer specifications. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is necessary for each class session. Access to a mobile device with a camera and microphone is recommended for participation in online sessions.
How are risks managed in this course?
What administrative information is relevant to this course?
Assessment: Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Assessment: Additional Requirements
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment
Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:
(a) The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%; and
(b) The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale
Assessment: Submission penalties
Late submissions may be penalised up to and including the following maximum percentage of the assessment task’s identified value, with weekdays and weekends included in the calculation of days late:
(a) One day: deduct 5%;
(b) Two days: deduct 10%;
(c) Three days: deduct 20%;
(d) Four days: deduct 40%;
(e) Five days: deduct 60%;
(f) Six days: deduct 80%;
(g) Seven days: A result of zero is awarded for the assessment task.
The following penalties will apply for a late submission for an online examination:
Less than 15 minutes: No penalty
From 15 minutes to 30 minutes: 20% penalty
More than 30 minutes: 100% penalty
Links to relevant University policy and procedures
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
- Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs
- Review of Assessment and Final Grades
- Supplementary Assessment
- Central Examinations
- Deferred Examinations
- Student Conduct
- Students with a Disability
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
Student Charter
UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.
General Enquiries
For course-specific questions, contact your teaching staff or Course Coordinator.
For other enquiries or to access support, please contact Student Central: