The chapter explores what professional engagement as a geography teacher looks like by identifying several geography-specific communities of practice and a range of resources suitable for teacher professional learning (TPL) in geography. Attention then focuses on the nature of professional engagement overall. Throughout the chapter, the reader is challenged to reflect on and consider how they can continue to maintain and build their capacity as a graduate and proficient early-career teacher of geography.

This chapter aims to develop teacher skills in planning units of work in geography. Teachers must become aware of the learning requirements of the unit from the Australian Curriculum: Geography that they intend to teach and then be focused on the assessment aspects that will drive the planning for the unit. Finally, the chapter provides a planning approach for the development of a teaching program that is relevant, achievable and engaging units for teaching.

As Geography teachers, it is necessary to show students what it is that makes geography distinctive, relevant and therefore powerful. The distinctiveness and relevance of a subject is shown through both content and pedagogy – pedagogical content knowledge, powerful knowledge, powerful pedagogy – bringing content knowledge to life for students through the way the subject is taught. Imagine a geography lesson without fieldwork, or without the use of geographical tools such as maps and visual representations, or without the interpretation of information through the lens of place-based analysis, spatial reasoning and human-environment interconnections. The chapter explores the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of developing distinctive and powerful geography lessons through posing an overarching question for reflection: ‘What makes your geography lesson geographical?’ Throughout the chapter, the reader is challenged to reflect on and consider how they can continue to identify, maintain and build their pedagogical practice.

This chapter deals with inquiry, a central tenet of geographical learning as set out in the Australian Curriculum. It examines the reasons for using inquiry in the classroom, in terms of both pedagogical theory and practical classroom teaching. It then suggests a number of ways in which inquiry can be put into practice.