ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how concepts have been used and understood in geography education, and how they relate to concepts in academic geography. It suggests a categorisation of concepts in geography education. Concepts can be seen as hierarchical, organisational and developmental. In each of these categorisations, concepts are used by geography educators to support the learning process, by emphasising the subject, pedagogy or the students' experiences. In this respect, concepts can be understood as powerful tools for the geography curriculum maker. The GA has suggested that it is useful to distinguish between: core knowledge; content knowledge; and procedural knowledge. In his review of concepts in geography at the time of the introduction of the 'concept-free' Original Orders of the Geography National Curriculum, Marsden suggested that concepts have two dimensions: abstract–concrete, and technical–vernacular. David Lambert and John Morgan see concepts as a powerful mechanism to support and develop geographical understanding.
