ABSTRACT
A teacher's main task is to create opportunities for their students to progress in learning geography. In recent years, debates around the role of knowledge in geography education have led to attention being focused on what students are expected to make progress in rather than the characteristic ways in which that progress happens. It is useful to have theoretically clear and empirically-informed work on how children and young people make progress in geography. Research can inform medium- and long-term planning by sharing understanding of the common patterns of progression and problems students encounter in their subject learning. Such understanding might be particularly valuable around break-points between key stages, as maintaining progression across these can be notoriously problematic. Research can also inform meaningful assessment practice, whether this is day-to-day formative practices, or construction of the overarching descriptors or benchmarks designed for summative assessment at the end of a key stage.
